A Metamorphmagus Companion
by Amorphis760
Summary: A young man lost his fight against cancer, but even death holds opportunities yet unknown. Given the choice between moving on and being reborn he will strive to make the best of his new chance at life in this strange new world.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: Hey everyone. I've decided to write something other than my Root of Darkness story because writing about 130k words worth of one story in less than two months wore me down and I find myself stalling on it a little. So in order to keep the creative juices flowing I've written this and I had fun writing it the last two days. Have fun reading but don't expect regular updates on this.**

'Where am I?' I looked around the vast prairie that surrounded me. My last conscious thought was… Ah, I see. I looked down at my hands as I flexed them without any of the pain that had plagued me for so long. It would seem that the surgery wasn't a success or I was hallucinating.

 **The former.**

A deep voiced that seemed to shake my entire being spoke from above. Startled at the sudden noise I let out a yelp and ended up tripping on an uneven portion of ground. The ground was soft so my fall didn't hurt but it did knock the wind out of me and I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

Looking up at the source of the voice as my cheeks glowed red I saw… I saw something impossibly beautiful. Shapes and swirls moved together in a chaotic yet orderly pattern, but they also seemed to move backwards and forwards at the same time. I felt my mind begin to crack just looking at the being and without conscious effort my hands went towards my eyes as a mad cackling filled the fields around us. Then there was pain, so much pain and my laughing grew louder and louder until it cut off suddenly.

 **Enough.**

I blinked and slowly moved my hands away from my face before blinking again. 'What just happened? Is that blood on my hands?'

 **I apologize. It has been many eons since I have last interacted with a mortal.**

I looked upwards and had to shield my eyes from the shining ball of light before I looked back down at my bloody hands. "Did I just-"

 **Yes.**

My hands began to tremble and I leaned to the side as I began to dry heave. Whatever the thing was waited patiently for me to finish as I furiously wiped my hands on the ground to clean them. I wasn't able to remove all of the blood from my hands but it was soothing to my battered psyche to try and once I had mostly recovered I turned back to the glowing ball of light. "So I assume I'm dead then?"

 **That would be correct.**

I hung my head at the conformation. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would as I had been prepared to die for a while now. Cancer would do that to you and the odds of success for the surgery had been quite low going into it. My brow scrunched in thought and I looked around at the seemingly never ending plains surrounding me. "So you must be God then? Have you come to judge me?" There was a pause before the being of light spoke.

 **I am a God, but one you are not familiar with and I have come with an offer.**

'An offer?'

 **Yes. I offer you the choice to move on to your final resting place wherever that may be or be reborn into another world.**

'Of course it can read my mind.' I thought bitterly before I spoke up. "What's the catch? There must be some downside to choosing to be reborn."

 **There is someone on that world that will struggle against the darkness that is coming. I would have you stand with her as a soulmate.**

I scoff at that. "A soulmate? Are our eyes going to meet and we'll instantly love each other for the rest of time."

 **No, that is a soul bond. Think of a soulmate as you would a random stranger you meet on the street yet you would both instantly feel as though the other could be your best friend. That will not make you automatically best friends but when you are together things will just click and anything further will be on your own initiative.**

'That doesn't sound so bad although the stand against darkness is kind of vague and unsettling.' I hummed as I thought about it some more. "Do I have any knowledge of the place I'm going?"

 **No, only that it is one of magic and technology although they are separate from one another.**

"Oh drat, foreknowledge would be useful." I paused for a moment and then asked my next question. "Do I have to decide now or can I take some time to think about it?"

 **We are Nowhere and Everywhere. In this place Time is meaningless.**

'So that's a yes I suppose.' With that answered I laid back down on the grass to think for a while. After an indeterminate amount of time later my eyes opened and I sat back up. "Alright, I'll do it."

 **Good. Go then with my boon to help you on your journey.**

The prairie and the God disappeared as I was sucked into a void of darkness. Panic clawed at my mind yet in the distance I saw a light that seemed to be growing closer and as something seemed to squeeze me I entered the light. It blinded me and the next thing I knew I felt myself being lifted and a sharp pain on my butt. The pain was so sudden and unexpected that I let out a sharp cry before I felt something wash over me and then something soft wrap around me.

"Congratulations, it's a boy." 'Ah, I was just born.' My mind supplied as I felt myself grasped by someone and a sharp gasp.

"Oh honey look, he's just like our little Nym." My vision was still blurry but I was able to make out the strong aristocratic features of the sweat drenched woman holding me along with her long brown hair. 'My new mother I suppose.'

"I can see that love. What should we name him then?" A deeper male voice came from behind me and I couldn't see what I assume to be my father.

"Eros, Eros Tonks." 'What an odd name.' I thought as I felt myself slipping away into sleep. Apparently dying and being reborn really takes it out of you. The last thing I heard was my new mom humming at me.

When I next woke up I was momentarily confused as to where I was and why I couldn't see well or move before it all came flooding back to me. I laid there for a while trying to process everything before an almost involuntary sob wracked through me as it truly hit me what I had lost when I had died. I don't know how long I was there in that crib crying before I felt a strong pair of arms lift me up and a soothing voice started speaking to me.

I was still too distressed to really listen to what they were saying but the next thing I knew something was shoved into my mouth and I involuntarily started sucking. Of course it hit me just what I was sucking on when I felt liquid start flowing into my mouth. I wanted to stop, I really did, but in the end it was necessary no matter how odd I found it to be. A short while later I heard another voice coming from behind me.

"Mum, is that the baby?"

"Nym, what are you doing up this early?" I heard some shuffling and then the voice spoke again closer.

"I heard crying and I wanted to see what was happening. Can I hold him?" There was a moment of silence before my new mom answered.

"In a bit after he's done feeding and only if you sit down first."

"Okay." I was feeling full anyways so I pulled away from her nipple.

"Oh, it's seems like he's done already. Why don't we go over to the couch and I'll let you hold him." We made our way over to it before I felt myself being handed off to what I assumed was my sister. "Careful now. Make sure you're supporting his head."

After a careful handoff I was able to finally see who my new mother had been talking too. A young girl beamed down at me but that wasn't what I concentrated on. The most fascinating thing about her was the fact that her hair was rapidly changing color as I looked at it. "Look mummy, he can change his hair too." 'I can? How? I don't feel anything changing?'

"We're going to have so much fun together." My new sister declared loudly and gave me a beautiful smile.

~5 Years Later~

I stood next to my mom, Andromeda Tonks, as my dad, Edward Tonks, fussed over my sister as we stood at the King's Cross Station. Her hair was flickering between colors but it was usually settling on a light red which I knew meant that she was reaching the end of her patience.

"Dad, it's fine. Stop fussing." He let out a sigh and pulled her into a hug.

"Just let me have this, alright? It's not every day that I get to see my one and only daughter off to Hogwarts." I didn't hear her reply as it was kind of loud with everyone around us and her face was buried in my dad's growing gut. Whatever it was he stepped back and gave her one last pat on the cheek causing her to roll her eyes as she turned to us.

I walked over and gave her a hug as well. I would miss having her around the house. It was fun trying to find the boundaries of our talents together but on the other hand I would be able to get some peace and quiet once she was gone. If I had to describe my sister in one word it would be boisterous which could be tiring after a while. "Bye Dora, come back soon." Her arms wrapped around me as she returned the hug.

"I'll only be gone for a bit." I gave her one more squeeze and then stepped back as my mom took my place.

"Have fun dear and do make sure to write. Do you need any help getting your trunk onboard?"

Dora shook her head as she stepped back towards her trunk. "I will and no thanks I can handle it myself." She picked up her trunk and wobbled a bit under the weight. I saw my dad slip out his wand out of Dora's view and cast something on her trunk. 'Probably made it lighter or something.' Was what I thought as she seemed to be able to lift it easier than before.

Sending a beaming smile our way Dora boarded the gleaming red train after we had said our goodbyes. Not a minute later the train gave a piercing whistle and everyone seemed to scramble as the ten minute countdown started. My mom grabbed my hand as the train started to pull away and I waved back at Dora who was sticking out the side of a window waving at us. We stood there until the train was out of sight and as the crowd started to break up we went off to the side to allow other people to go through the barrier first.

"Well I'm off to work than." My dad gave my mom a kiss and ruffled my hair. "You be good for your mum."

"Alright." He gave me a grin and then disappeared with a crack.

"I guess it's just the two of us then. Let's go back home." We left the station and after an extremely uncomfortable bus ride on that monstrosity that they called a bus we were back at our little two storied house. Well actually it had more than two stories because magic is awesome but it looked like a normal brick house surrounded by a forest from the outside.

We passed through the wards, which felt like walking through a thin spider web to me, and entered the house. "Do you want to do anything after lunch Eros?"

"Read." I said without hesitation. The whole concept of magic fascinated me and we had a decent sized library that I was working my way through at the moment. Of course I wasn't able to cast anything at the moment without a wand but I resolved to work on that. If I could change my entire body wandlessly I was positive I could eventually perform external magic without a wand.

"My little Ravenclaw." She tweaked my nose as she said that and then guided me into the kitchen where she began to prepare lunch. I'm sure I had amazed my parents by my apparent genius for reading at such a young age as well as being so well spoken. Although it didn't help that I still mixed up terms because I was an American and we were in Britain. For example I said 'Mum' now, but I grew up before saying mom and several other things that made them wonder where my terms were coming from. I finished my lunch and ran off to the library as my mom went to go brew potions for St. Mungos because she was a potioneer that worked for them.

Stopping briefly at the entrance of the library I took a deep breath and let the smell of parchment and paper wash over me before running my hand along the book spines searching for a good one. 'An Introduction to Magical Theory' stood out to me so I pulled that one out and curled up in an armchair as I began to read.

~5 Years Later~

Three pebbles spun unsteadily above my hand as I glared at them. I had just recently attended a Yule celebration with my family and there had been a little shite by the name of Draco there that just irritated me to no end. Sure he was only 10 but he had called my mom a two bit whore for running off and marrying my dad. If that wasn't bad enough he had also called my sister and I mistakes that dirtied the Black family name by existing. It took everything I had not to punch the smug little shite in the face and I knew that Dora mirrored my thinking if her blood red hair and the furious scowl on her face was any indication. He had been saved from a beating by his mom pulling him away with a stern look on her face.

My thoughts were broken as I heard a quiet sound coming from the next room over. The pebbles fell to the floor as my concentration was broken and I frowned at them before focusing on the sound more. It sounded like, crying? Growing a little concerned I made my way over to Dora's room and knocked on the door. "Sis, are you okay?" There was no reply but the sound cut off. "I'm coming in."

I opened the door to the sight of her usual messy sprawl of a room along with several large sized portraits of the Weird Sisters jamming along to unheard music. Dora herself was sprawled out on top of her bed with her face buried in her pillows and a letter next to her. I made my way over to her and sat down on the bed while taking a glance at the letter. 'Ah, that would do it. Boy trouble.'

"Do you want me to get you anything? We have your favorite caramel flavoured ice cream if you want some?"

There was a quiet snuffle before she said, "Yes." Standing up I raced downstairs and pulled out a tub of her favorite ice cream before grabbing a spoon and running back upstairs. She hadn't moved from her spot and I plopped back down on her bed then nudged her with the tub of ice cream.

She inhaled sharply from the cold before turning and glaring at me. "You brought the entire thing?"

"Er, yeah." She looked between me and the tub of ice cream before shrugging and taking it from me. Now that I could see her face I could see the redness in her eyes and her hair was drooping whilst blue. 'Never a good sign that.' Dora had sat up and was eating small spoonfuls of ice cream while I watched. I let the silence grow between us until I thought she would be comfortable enough to talk about what happened.

"So," I began cautiously, "what's got you in such a tizzy? Was it that blonde ponce? I reckon I could kick him once or twice if it is." She let out a chuckle before her hair flared red.

"No, it's my ex-boyfriend Bruce. He just broke up with me, although I wouldn't mind if you did kick that little shite Malfoy." She glanced around nervously immediately afterwards. "Don't tell mum I said that." I nodded seriously before my face morphed into an expression of confusion.

"Why would he break up with you? You're the best." Her hair turned pink before turning back to red.

"Thanks, I think so to." I rolled my eyes at that and she giggled. "He kept on trying to get into my knickers and telling me to change things about me, but I kept on saying no. Now I'm apparently a prude because I didn't so he broke up with me and the worst thing about this is all the girls talking behind my back calling me a whore because all the boys are drooling over the fact that I'm a metamorphmagus." She viciously stabbed the spoon into the ice cream. "Stupid cows that they are."

Silence fell between us again as she continued to stab the ice cream and eat it angrily. I wasn't quite sure what to say in this situation. It's not like I could apologize for the fact that she could turn into a supermodel on demand or tell her to be uglier. That would be just stupid. My nose wrinkled before I spoke again. "They're just jealous."

"I know that, you know that, everyone knows that. It doesn't make what they say less hurtful when they say things like that." There was more than a hint of bitterness in her voice as she said that.

"I'm sorry."

"For what? You can't help that they're spiteful. In fact you'll probably deal with the same problems I have when you're older." She glanced up at me as she said that and then sighed as she put the ice cream to the side before motioning me to sit next to her. I scooched over and she wrapped an arm around me. "If that ever happens to you come tell me about it. I'll be a super Auror by then and I'll arrest them."

"I think that would count as abuse of authority." I said cautiously.

"Eh, I'd still do it for you lil' brother." She flopped backwards pulling me with her and the bed gave a creaking sound as we hit it. "Thanks for this. It helped to vent."

"You're my sister of course I'd come to help you when I heard you crying." She didn't say anything but her arm tightened around me and I listened to her heartbeat as we laid there. I don't know how long we were there until Dora spoke up again.

"So what were you doing before this then?" I didn't really want to talk about my attempts at wandless magic. My new family already thought I was a genius and I didn't want to exacerbate their notions anymore for now.

"Practicing." She nudged me to continue so I did. "I think I have the buck bill down now."

"Really?" A note of curiosity entered her voice. "Let's see it then." I concentrated for a moment and felt my lips stretch then thin out. There was a rustling sound as Dora moved and then a whistle of appreciation. "Looks good. Of course I always knew you were a quack."

'Oh no she didn't.' I reached across her waist and started tickling both her tickle spots at once. She was extremely sensitive to tickling and she immediately started squirming while laughing hysterically. "Hahaha, oh no you didn't." She went on the offensive and my own peals of laughter joined hers as we both struggled to gain the upper hand. Unfortunately she had me outclassed in terms of strength and weight and I was soon pinned beneath her as she mercilessly tickled me.

"Haha, Dora stop. Hehe, I give, I give." She stopped, eventually, and I laid there panting, trying to catch my breath after laughing for so long as she raised her hands in the air victoriously.

"Yesss. I'm Queen of the tickles. Bow to me my minion." She looked back down at me and her eyes narrowed as her fingers started to wiggle again. "I'm not hearing any praise from you minion. Do I need to reiterate the lesson?"

I shook my head feverously back and forth as I caught my breath. "My Queen, you are the ruler of the tickles." She stuck her nose up in the air and struck a posh pose.

"And don't you forget it." With that said she flopped down to the side of me. "Thanks again for taking my mind off this thing, but could you leave me alone for a bit now?"

"Are you sure you're okay now?"

Letting out a sigh she rolled on her side and propped herself up so she could look down at me. "I'm good for now I just want some time alone." I searched her face as she said that and eventually nodded.

"Alright, but if you need anything I'll be in my room." She nodded and I hopped off the bed and left the room, shutting the door behind me. By the time Dora had to go back to school for the spring term she had seemed to have recovered her good mood and I was grateful for that.

~1 Year Later~

'It was a beautiful day.' Was the first coherent thought that ran through my mind after I had zombied my way out of bed and downstairs for breakfast. The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky and the rabbits where probably going at it like, well rabbits really. All in all a rather unusual occurrence in Wales but a happy one.

"Wotcher, little brother! Are you ready to get your school supplies today? Oh, it'll be so much fun having you at Hogwarts this year as my lil' minion." I turned my attention away from the window at my sister's happy exclamation. I took in I-will-gut-you-with-a-rusty-spoon Tonks' appearance today. Not that it really mattered of course, she's always changing things around or at least she used to before she settled down on a more permanent appearance. Today at least her hair was light pink, which I knew meant she was excited, with a neither beautiful nor ugly face while wearing her Weird Sister's t-shirt and sapphire blue eyes.

"Morning sis, I can't wait. Are you going to be dragging me around for shopping or is mum going to do that?" I sat down at the table and starting buttering a toasted piece of bread.

"Hmm, mum I think. I'll be there but I'll be getting my own supplies and I'm meeting up with a few friends as well."

"Sounds reasonable. At least this way it'll only take a few hours instead of days to get all the shopping done."

"Hey watch yourself mister I'm not that bad." She brandied a butter knife in my direction. I just glance at her with the deadened eyes of males everywhere when they are forced to go on a shopping trip with a female.

"So that time when it took you 4 hours to choose one shirt was just my imagination then was it?" Really it was horrible. It's bad enough when they're just looking for that one thing that will fit them but when they can change their sizes on a whim it becomes a game of showing off.

Her nose turned into a pig snout as she snorted, "Of course dear brother. Alas it is such a shame, my poor baby brother gone insane at such a young age."

"Driven to insanity by his sister what a way to go." I managed to dodge the first hex but the next one hit me square in the chest and I started giggling helplessly as the tickling charm went to work.

"Nymphadora dear, what have I told you about hexing your brother?" My mom glided into the room every inch a poised noble. Even after all these years she can't seem to drop all those habits she learned as a child.

"Don't call me Nymphadora." One elegant eyebrow is raised. "Not at the table." She grumbled out and canceled the charm.

A sigh and a quiet, "Close enough," is all she said as she started flicking her wand causing the dishes to fly through the air and start cleaning themselves in the sink. I feel like I should take offense to this but it's not like she ever does anything bad to me. It's just prank spells for the most part or completely harmless ones like that tickling charm. I enjoy them, for the most part, and I think Dora enjoys casting them on me to make me laugh. It's all in good fun really.

"Eros go get ready and then we'll leave for Diagon Alley as soon you're ready."

"Don't call me Eros." I said as I got up from the table to get ready. It was more of a reflex response than any actual dislike for the name. I actually thought it was kind of funny how my parents named the two metamorphmagus' in the entire country names that referred to sexual people or things. I just kind of went with the flow after I heard my sister complain so much about her name.

I quickly changed out of my pajamas and threw on a set of jeans and t-shirt before hurrying back downstairs. My mom and sister were waiting for me by the Floo when I got down.

"Remember it's Diagon Alley. Make sure you pronounce it clearly." I rolled my eyes at that.

"I know that mum it's not like I haven't done this before." I take a pinch of Floo powder and throw it into the flames before stepping into them as they turned green. "Diagon Alley," I call out as I step forward and I was pulled into the flames. I've always hated Floo travel. It always feels like you're spinning around on the spot while you catch glimpses of other Floo connections as you zip by before you seemingly come to a complete stop at your destination. Over the years I had gotten used to the feeling yet I still stumbled as I exited the fireplace. I counted my blessings that I didn't make a fool of myself in front of everyone at the bar as I landed on my feet this time. Obviously I had counted my blessings too soon as Tonks came barreling out of the Floo with all her usual grace and slammed into me sending us both onto the ground.

"Wotcher, brother of mine, fancy meeting you here."

"Dora get off, you're heavy." I groaned from my position beneath her. Before we could start squabbling I could hear the cool voice of our mom coming from behind us.

"Eros, you should know by now a lady is never heavy and Nymphadora get off your brother." A quick grumble about our names was in order as we untangled ourselves and brushed off any dust that had stuck to us from our impromptu trip to the floor. Seeing that all was in order Andromeda led the way towards Diagon Alley passing by Tom as we went.

"'Ello there Miss Tonks, Tonks and Tonks." The barkeep Tom sent a wide smile our way as we walked towards him.

"Wotcher Tom." My ever cheerful sister sent a wide smile right back at him, probably amused at his greeting.

"Oh, ye just missed young Rose Potter. She came in here with 'Agrid for her school supplies. Looked like a twig if you ask me and I think she was wearing some weird muggle fashion. Maybe you could catch a glimpse of her in the Alley."

"Thank you Tom we might just do that." My mom strode past and started tapping her wand in a pattern on the brick wall. Even though I've seen it before it's always interesting seeing the wall fold itself out of the way as you catch your first glimpse of the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. It seemed like it was especially packed today what with school starting up soon and all.

"Now dear do you want to come with us or do you want to go buy your thing by yourself?"

"I think I'll go by myself."

"Alright then, when you're done lets meet up at Florean Fortescue's for some ice cream. This should be enough for all your school supplies." My mum handed over a small pouch to my sister. "Have fun now."

"I will, thanks mum." She ambled off in the direction of the bookstore. I sighed when I saw her stumble on the flat ground as she was walking away. I just don't get how she can be so clumsy sometimes. The amused chuckle from my mom confirmed that she was thinking the same thing. I turned as I heard the crinkling of paper and saw my mom looking at my school supply list.

"Let's get your robes done shall we." She rolled the parchment back up and took my hand, pulling me deeper into the Alley. People were hustling about and further down the street I could see small fireworks coming from Zonko's the prank shop. I had to duck as an owl swooped down to land on an outstretched arm of a wizard and he didn't even apologize for it. 'Fairly inconsiderate of him really.' Finally we arrived at Madam Malkin's Fine Robes and let ourselves in.

The interior was darker than the outside and I had to let my eyes adjust a bit to the change in light. As soon as they did I wanted to groan at the sight before me. That blonde ponce of a cousin was here talking down to a red headed girl next to him. Before I could ask to leave the clothe store for later a perky saleswoman had dragged me over to where the two were standing and started measuring me for my robes.

"So three sets of Hogwarts attire for you today?" I wanted to sigh but I held it in.

"Yes please, and could you please put an expansion charm on them as well." I let my hair flicker between colors. "I sometimes like to change shape and it would be a bother to have restrictive clothes."

"Oh, you're one of those. Can you do Gilderoy Lockhart's face?" I mentally frowned but let out a cheerful smile instead.

"Sorry, I haven't seen his face."

"Oh." She seemed disappointed but got on with my measurements. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the red headed girl staring at me. I turned my head towards her and caught sight of the most brilliant green colored eyes I have ever seen. As soon as I saw her eyes an odd feeling spread through me. 'I'll have to try that shade of eye color later, it could be fun.' I thought as I shook off the feeling.

"You know it's rude to stare." A huge blush spread across her face at my blunt statement.

"I-I'm sorry it's just I've never seen someone's hair change like that. How are you doing that?" Oh, it must be a first generation witch. I don't really mind explaining my ability to others if they don't know I just dislike when people request me to change to other people.

"I'm a metamorphmagus." I quickly change my lips into a duck bill and back again. "I can shape and control my body to change how I look." Her eyes are as wide as saucers now.

"That's so cool. Can anyone become a metamorphmagus?" Well at least she gets points for not asking me to change for her. I let out a gentle smile.

"Sorry, but it's something that you're born with."

"Oh,' she seems a bit downcast, 'is there some way to tell if you are one?" I let myself think for a moment.

"It depends on how strong your talent is I guess. My sister and I were changing basically from birth. If you had a lesser affinity for it the most likely areas that it would show up would be your hair. If you've ever wanted to change your hair and it suddenly did or it doesn't change shape or length at all you might have a small affinity to be a metamorphmagus."

Her brow furrowed as she thought. "One time my Aunt cut my hair and the next day it grew back." A frown appeared next. "I've also never cut my hair. It has always been this length I think or at least I haven't had to ever cut it before." She ran her fingers through her curly red hair absentmindedly.

I perked up at that. "Really? That would be amazing if you could. Metamorphs are extremely rare you know. My sister and I are the only ones in all of Britain. Try changing the color of your hair. It might make it easier to look at it when you do." She brought her hair up to eye length and seemed to glare at it.

"Think about what you want to accomplish when you change. It's all about visualizing and willpower." I urged her on. The seconds ticked by as we both stared intently at her hair and slowly, ever so slowly, her dark red hair turned black.

We were both staring at it in amazement when the whiny voice of Draco cut through our joy. "Well, well if it isn't my blood traitor cousin." I grimaced at having to deal with the little bastard so early in the morning.

"Shut up Malfoy, at least my dad didn't kiss the feet of a murderer." I could see the blush spread across his face before anger overtook him.

"My father is a great man and besides he was under the Imperius curse." A sneer crossed my face.

"Sure he was and the large donation to the minister that just happened to be right before his trial had nothing to do with his acquittal." He sputtered and his face took on an interesting hue but he had no rebuttal to my words and eventually stormed out after throwing out a parting "My father will hear of this," as he left the store.

There was an awkward silence between the girl and I before she tentatively started up the conversation again. "What does blood traitor mean?" I gave a huge sigh and turned back from glaring at Malfoy's retreating back.

"It's a term purebloods came up with during the last war. It means those who betray the ideals of pureblood society or those who stood against You-Know-Who. He called me that because my mum came from an old pureblood family called the Blacks and she was kicked out of the family after eloping with a muggleborn instead of being forced into a marriage contract with the Lestrange family. My Aunt Bellatrix married in her stead and now she's in Azkaban for her crimes during the war along with the Lestranges."

I finished my speech and just let her absorb everything for a moment. "Enough about unpleasant things though let's move on," My excitement leaked into my voice. "You're a metamorphmagus. You have to meet my sister, she'll be so jealous that I have a friend that is a metamorphmagus as well. She's one to, of course, but she got kind of lonely being the only one in school and now there is one more of us."

"F-Friend?" I draw back a little hurt.

"Do you not want to be friends?"

"No, no I just haven't had many friends before." She withdrew slightly into herself as she said that and I kind of got the vibe that she hasn't had friends period. You get pretty good at reading body language when you and your sister play lying games to help control muscle groups. I smile widely.

"Then it's always good to get new friends, but where are my manners? You can call me Tonks. What's your name?"

"I'm Rose."

"Nice to meet you Rose." I grin once more and reach out to shake her hand. Tentatively she does the same and as soon as our hands touch a jolt not dissimilar to a static shock goes through me.

"Haha, sorry about that must have built up a charge or something." I glance around to make sure my mom or sister isn't nearby. "Just don't mention this when you meet my mom or sister or the teasing will never end."

She laughs it off and we just chat about how excited we are for Hogwarts and other inconsequential things until they finally finish our orders and we go to the counter to pay. My mom glides up behind me as we arrive and purchases my order.

"So I see you've made a friend then. Who is this?"

"Hey mum, this is Rose, we just met and the best thing is she's a metamorphmagus as well."

"Really? How interesting? I thought my children were the only ones in Britain." She pauses to examine Rose for a moment. "When did you find out young lady?"

Rose scuffs her shoe on the ground and stares at the ground bashfully. "Yes, ma'am. I just found out after Tonks explained it to me. I was able to turn my hair a different color afterwards."

"Oh how lovely, and there is no need to call me ma'am just call me Andi dear."

"Yes ma'- I mean Andi."

"I would love it if you and your parents could come over for dinner sometime. Metamorphs are so rare they almost never meet." I could physically see her winch at the statement.

"Uh, I live with my Aunt and Uncle and they, well, they don't like magic very much. It took them a week filled with hundreds of Hogwarts letters and one of the staff coming to get me before they let me go here." I could see a glimmer of a plot form in my mom's eyes after Rose said that.

"Well then, it's absolutely a must that you at least come over for dinner tonight. After all who better to explain your new found abilities than those who already have them? You can continue shopping with us as well if you like since your escort seems to have wandered off somewhere."

"Oh, er,' she looked around as though trying to spot her escort, 'alright at least until we find Hagrid." I saw the glimmer explode into a full blown twinkle at that and my own mind connected the dots from Tom's gossip to the fact that this must be Rose Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived. The only outward sign that I gave to this revelation was a twitch of an eyebrow. My mom had always believed that the Potter's must have enacted a ritual that saved Rose and not that she was a magical messiah that people seemed to have turned her into and I thought so as well. That still wouldn't stop her from having her befriend the family it would seem.

The next few hours were a blur as we waded through the crowds and gathered everything we needed for Hogwarts along with some extra books for Rose on Magical traditions and such after the revelation that she had been living with her muggle relatives. We were by no means big on pureblood traditions or highborn etiquette but the books were useful primers on Magical culture for muggle raised witches or wizards. We did meet up with Hagrid after the first hour and after a brief talk he agreed to tag along. 'Like anything else was going to happen when my mom was on a mission.' I thought as I say her swiftly verbally spar poor Hagrid into submission. Finally we came to the last thing on the list, our wands. Hagrid dipped out on us again and we entered the store without him.

My first impression of Ollivander's store was that it was packed. Everywhere I looked there were boxes that I presumed held wands. There must have been hundreds if not thousands of boxes scattered around the shop. I was so focused on the store itself I received quite a shock when a soft male voice came from right behind us. "I've been awaiting you Miss Potter. It seem only yesterday when your parents came here to buy their first wands as well. Ah, and you must be Mister Tonks. Your sister was a tricky customer indeed. And you Miss Tonks, 13 ½ inch willow with a core of Welsh dragon heart. How is your wand treating you today?"

"Quite well Mr. Ollivander."

"Good, good now who will go first then?" I turn and look at Rose with a raised eyebrow but she motioned me to go ahead.

"I guess that will be me sir."

"Excellent, which hand is your dominant one?"

I shrug, "I'm ambidextrous, but I mainly use my right hand." A tape measure flew out from behind his desk and started measuring everywhere as Ollivander moved back into his shop.

"Tricky, but we'll find one for you." Just as I was getting annoyed with the tape measure it flew back behind the desk and Ollivander approached with a box. "Let's see if you take after your mother then. This is a 13 inch willow wand with a dragon heart core." He removes the wand from its resting place and places it in my awaiting hand. "Try giving it a wave then." I do so only to lurch back as a gout of flame roars from the tip and strikes the wall. "No, no not that one at all." He snatches the wand out of my hand and wanders back into the store to pick up another box. "Now try this one."

On and on it goes until, finally, 30 minutes later he brings one out and as soon as it touches my hand I know that this is the one. A set of red sparks flies from the wand and it feels like it belongs there in my hands. "Excellent, 10 inches of Ash with a phoenix feather core. A wand with the ability to heal as easily as it can destroy, use it wisely." He looked me straight in the eye as he said this and I can't help the shiver that goes down my spine.

"Now then it's your turn miss. Step right on up here." And so the entire process was repeated for Rose except for right at the end where Ollivander glanced our way as though judging us before stepping close to Rose. Delicately, he brushed aside her hair, revealing her scar, and touched it lightly before saying. "I'm sorry to say that I sold the very wand that gave you this scar, had I but known what I know now... Yet we cannot change the past now can we?" Rose shuffled awkwardly as he continued speaking. "It is curious that this very wand chose you as it is the brother of the very one that gave you this scar. I expect great things from you Miss Potter. For the Dark Lord did terrible things, yes, but they were great." He stepped back from Rose and walked behind his desk, yet he seemed older somehow than he did before.

"For the 10 ½ inch holly wand with a phoenix feather core that will be 7 galleons and for you mister Tonks that will be 7 galleons as well. Will that be all?" In the end we convinced Rose to buy a wand holster and cleaning kit for an extra 3 galleons and I did as well. The mood of the group was quite subdued as we walked out of Ollivanders and into the street where we were met by Hagrid holding something behind his back.

"'Ello there Rose. I reckon I missed your birthday present so I went and got you this." He moved a cage into view with a beautiful snow white owl within. Rose seemed to be visibly moved to tears by the gift.

"Thank you Hagrid she's beautiful." The owl preened at this. "What's her name?"

"O' she doesn't have a name yet so you'll have ta' name her yourself." Rose stared into the amber eyes of the owl then suddenly declared her name was Hedwig. We went to get lunch and mom had another long talk to Hagrid about Rose being invited for dinner and how of course we would be able to get her home later. This was of course after the fact that Rose had accepted our offer of dinner.

Finally Hagrid broke down under my mom's unrelenting force and left to go back to Hogwarts while we left for Florean Fortescue's to get some well-deserved ice cream. I spotted Tonks sitting at a table by herself eating ice cream and dragged Rose over to her.

"Hey sis, this is my new friend Rose. I bet you'll never guess what she can do?" I had a larger than possible grin on my face after I said that.

Tonks looked up from her ice cream as I was introducing Rose. "Wotcher Rose, names Tonks, just Tonks thank you very much." Rose looked between us very confused.

"I don't get it. Why are you both named Tonks?" Dora let out a sigh before she explained.

"Our mum must have been on something when she named us so we just go by our last names. If we're together the squirt is Tonksie and I'm Tonks. Anyway what can she do?"

"Ah, come on can't you even take a guess?" I pouted then dodged a bit of ice cream she flung at me. "So violent. Fine then, I found out she's a metamorphmagus when I met her." I timed it just as Dora was taking a bite then started laughing when she started coughing on her ice cream.

As soon as Dora got her breath under control she sent me a glare and when a metamorphmagus sends you a glare they mean it. It was full on red eyes and spiky hair that moved to an unfelt breeze. "I'll get you for that brat." She went back to 'normal' and turned to Rose. "Seriously though?" Rose concentrated for a couple seconds and her hair turned brown then almost immediately turned back. "You have the strangest luck sometimes Tonksie. What's next a phoenix for a familiar?"

"Not today that's scheduled for next week after I become King of Britain." I quipped.

Tonks ignored me with an ease of practice. "So when did you learn you were a metamorphmagus and what can you do?"

"Oh, I just found out today so I don't know yet."

"Well then I guess we'll be seeing each other a lot if you want to have an instructor for your talents." A cheerful grin was on her face as she turned to me. "Did mum invite her over for dinner or something?" A nod was my response. "Wonderful we could have our first lesson tonight if you want to."

Rose gave a shy nod and Tonks prattled on about how wonderful it was to have a new minion because her old one was dreadfully boring sometimes and how astoundingly lucky it was to have three metamorphmagus' in one generation and all in the same place. I purposefully ignored her calling me a minion, it wouldn't do to feed her delusions after all. In all seriousness though it actually was indeed extremely lucky. The last time we had checked there was a recorded fifty metamorphmagus' in the entire world. I didn't have time to fully explore the thought before my mom was shooing us out of the shop, ice cream in hand, and back towards the Leaky Cauldron.

We exited Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron before my mom raised her wand and with a pop the Knight bus appeared before us. "Come along children," she ushered us onto the bus while Rose was still bug eyed at the sudden appearance on the triple stacked blue bus.

"Welcome to the Knight bus, means of transportation for all stranded witches and wizards. Fare is 7 sickles for a ride and 12 for a complementary toothbrush and hot chocolate."

"Just the ride today." My mom handed over the necessary amount. "Can you get us to the Tonks Residence in Wales, please?"

"Sure thing. Need any help with the luggage?"

"Yes, if you could be a dear." A wave of his wand later and all our luggage had floated onboard and stowed itself under the beds. I hopped on one of the unoccupied beds and made sure I had a firm grip on it before I motioned for Rose to join me.

"Way to go lil' brother, inviting a girl to bed before you even get to Hogwarts." She wiped a fake tear away. "They grow up so fast." I sputtered and out of the corner of my eye I could see Rose turning the color of her hair as I'm sure I was. Unfortunately before I could come up with a witty reply the Knight bus was off and I was too busy holding on for dear life as the bed we were on spun and collided with other beds in a horrible parody of bumper cars. I did see Dora stumble and collapse onto another bed with a sort of vindictive glee reserved for sibling.

Hearing something that sounded like a whimper next to me. I turned to see Rose clutching the bed post so hard both of her hands were white. "Isn't this fun?" Rose turned towards me her eyes wide with terror.

"Fun?" She said in a tone of voice reserved for those who suddenly find themselves confronted with a crazy person. "How can this be fun?"

"Why not? It's not like we're in any danger really." Oh, that's a good glare but it still has nothing on my sister's glare. Maybe in a few years I mused. My only warning was a squeak and then everything seemed to compress inwards giving the impression of being stretched. As quickly as it happened the sensation ended and we were once more flying down the road.

"See fun." I could practically feel Rose willing me to die for that statement and for the rest of the trip she didn't speak to me. As soon as the bus stopped she staggered off of it and collapsed onto the ground. The rest of us walked off the bus in varying states of disarray with Dora being the most ruffled and my mom not having a hair out of place.

My mom walked past us and then turned back to Rose as our baggage floated behind her. "I formally invite you into our home." Rose just looked confused by her statement until I bent down and whispered the correct response in her ear.

She stood up unsteadily and then formally spoke. "Um, I humbly accept your invitation." I felt the magic in the air twist as she was keyed into the wards surrounding our home as a guest. The wards were some of the best you could buy without being an Ancient and Noble family on the Wizengamont due to a variety of reasons but the main one I suppose is the fact that my sister and I are metamorphmagus'. I'm sure that our kind were right up there alongside Veela for our desirability to less fair minded folk.

With that out of the way we walked up the small drive way towards our seemingly small brick house but as soon as we entered Rose looked around in wonder. "It's bigger on the inside."

"Yep, magic is great like that. Do you want to practice to see how extensive your metamorphmagus talents are?" She just sort of numbly nodded and I dragged her along upstairs as Dora followed along. We reached my room and I threw it open to reveal a quite orderly room filled to the brim with books as they lined the shelves. I also had a big comfy armchair and a footrest as well as a desk.

"Right, before we begin do you want anything to drink at all? Water? Tea?" She shook her head and gingerly sat down on the armchair while both my Dora and I sat down on my bed. "Dora do you want to?" I trailed off as she gave me a nod.

"So, um, where to start?" She tapped her chin for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "Right, let's start by clarifying the degree at which you can be a metamorphmagus. To start there is the least talented called a minor metamorph. They are limited to superficial changes such as hair, nails and possibly skin color. Then you have the next level up called a partial metamorph. They can do everything a minor can but also change their bone structure." She took a breath and I saw that Rose was listening intently.

"Now for the final level a full metamorph can change anything about their body even changing into nonhuman parts as well as gender." Dora's nose wrinkled. "A full metamorphmagus, which both myself and my brother are, don't really have a gender or 'base' form like the other two levels do." Dora changed into a copy of myself and then back to how she was before disregarding the wide eyed stare from Rose. "I prefer to be female and Tonksie prefers to be male but either of us could change our genders and have everything work properly."

Dora must have seen something in Rose's confused look because she elaborated on the last part. "You, um, do know what I mean when I say everything works properly with males and females?"

"Um, my Aunt said that if a boy," she blushed and then gestured lower on her body, "touched me there that I would get pregnant and be worthless like my mum was. Is that what you mean?"

"That's…" Dora trailed off and we both shared a look. I got up off the bed and grabbed a book on Anatomy to give to Dora before hightailing it out of there. No way was I staying there as Dora explained the Birds and the Bees to Rose. I would let Dora handle it and I was irked that someone would call a child's mother worthless to their face. I also hadn't missed the fact that her clothes were several sizes too big and men's clothes to boot. She did look smaller than an eleven year old should as well but I didn't know if that was the result of malnourishment or if she had made herself smaller.

I wandered on down to my mum's lab where I could hear her moving around in. Sticking my head in I saw her brewing some type of potion. Seeing that she wasn't in a crucial step I spoke up. "What are you making?"

"A Nutrient potion along with a Bone Strengthening potion for Rose. The wards informed me about her general health but nothing specific so I'm going with a broad spectrum. Why aren't you with Rose and Dora?"

"Rose was misinformed about some things that she needs to know about if she's anything more than a minor metamorphmagus." Her head tilted to the side.

"Sex education?" There was a loud cry from above and then the sound of Dora's laughter.

I looked up at the sound and then back at my mom. "That and the fact that if that isn't her base form she'll have to do some extensive clean up what with the nails and hair everywhere." She made a humming noise and went back to preparing the potions. A couple hours later I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and I looked up to see both Dora and Rose walking down. Putting a bookmark in the book and setting it aside for now I greeted them. "Hey guys, how did it go?"

Rose took one look at me and then immediately looked to the side as a severe blush spread across her face. I think she grew a couple of centimeters or so but other than her now gaunt look nothing else had really changed. Dora on the other hand gave me a wide smile. "Everything went fine brother of mine. Rose here is at least a partial metamorphmagus. She just has some control issues to work on."

"Oh?"

She shrugged and then slumped onto the couch. "She's been trying to stay in the one form for so long she just reverts back to it almost automatically at this point. We got her to her base form but she reverted back with a couple of centimeters almost immediately afterwards. Then we got to the Birds and the Bees." There was a choking sound from Rose as she still refused to look at me.

Before we could continue I heard a sharp crack from outside and then my father's voice calling out, "Hello family, I'm home."

"Wotcher dad."

"Hey dad." There was the noise of a closing door and then my dad stepped into view, blinking at the still blushing Rose.

"Well hello there miss. What's your name?"

She floundered for a bit before answering. "Oh, ah, Rose sir."

"Oh, no need to call me sir. Call me Ted." She nodded as my mom came in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hello dear. How was work?"

"Eh, same old, same old. Greengrass is suing the Malfoys for butting in on their import business. Hopefully I can wring as much money out of the Malfoys as possible, but how about dinner first before I tell you about the rest of my day. I can smell one of your lovely meals from here and I'm starving." Indeed the smell of cooked chicken had been wafting out of the kitchen for the last few minutes making me kind of hungry.

We relocated to the dining table where mom had cooked a lovely meal of biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and chicken. Rose took a seat next to Dora although I noted that she seemed unsure of herself as though unused to sitting down for dinner with others. Still as the meal progressed she seemed to relax and take slower bites of her food until everything on her plate was gone yet her stomach still let out a loud rumble. 'That would be the Nutrient potion making sure as much food as possible is absorbed as quickly as possible.' Rose looked mortified and seemed to be trying to hide under the table but my mom just smiled and set another plate in front of her.

"Don't be shy. I do love it when I see people appreciate my food." She sent an encouraging smile Rose's way until she began to nibble at her new plate of food. The rest of the dinner progressed without a hitch and Rose seemed like she was going to try to wash the dishes before they floated off the table and started cleaning themselves in the sink. My mom gave me a look and I cleared my throat.

"Ah, Rose would you like to stay for the night?" A myriad of expressions crossed her face at my offer before settling on a dash of hopeful and wary.

"I don't want to intrude at all and I only have this for clothing," she paused and then amended, "Well besides the robes."

My mom spoke up at that. "You wouldn't be intruding at all. We have plenty of spare bedrooms and I'm sure we could find an old set of Nymphadora's clothes for you to change into if you really want to stay." We all ignored Dora's grumbles at being called her name.

"If you're sure that I won't be a bother."

"Quite sure, but if you're uncomfortable about it then we can call up the Knight bus and it'll take you home." She went a little green at the mention of the bus and shook her head.

"I'd like to stay."

"Great. Do you want to go flying?" I butted into the conversation and was rewarded by seeing Rose's eyes light up at the prospect of flying.

"You can do that?" I nod and motion her to follow me.

She did so and my dad calls out as we leave the room. "Make sure to stay inside the clearing."

"Alright." I call back as I open the broom closet and pull out two Cleansweep fives. A good solid broom capable of up to 40mph or 64kph as our superior system would say. 'Ugh, they've infected me with their way of thinking. Next thing you know I'll be saying 'Tally Ho!' before downing my tea and riding into battle.' Shaking off the strange thought I hand one of the brooms to Rose and we made or way outside to the large clearing behind the house.

"Right. First things first." I put the broom down and then leapt forwards to do a belly flop onto the ground. It felt like jumping onto a soft bed and I let out a laugh when I turned around to see Rose's incredulous expression. "There's Cushioning charms layered all over the clearing. As long as you stay inside the clearing falling off your broom won't hurt a bit. Try it out first."

She hesitantly did so and then gasped at the feel of it. "It's so soft."

"Yep." I stood up and retrieved both of the brooms. "Now look at my grip on the actual broom." I mounted the broom and lightly kicked off the ground to float there. She did so as well and the sheer delight at floating was heartwarming to see. There was a hoot from above us and I looked up to see Hedwig flying in circles above us. Rose apparently saw her as well because she shot off like a rocket after her whooping the entire time.

I watched as she took to the sky with the ease of a bird of prey. Swooping down next to the ground and pulling up at the last second then soaring high once more. Indeed both Hedwig and Rose seemed to dance together to an unheard tune that took them all over the clearing. I didn't even try to intervene as I watched, mesmerized at the sight.

All things end though and coming out of one last dive Rose flew up into the sky to hang there as Hedwig took the opportunity to perch on her shoulder then nuzzle her. I flew up next to her to see her flush with exertion and twin tear tracks running down her face as she gazed over the tree tops. "Are you alright?"

My voice seemed to startle her and she hastily wiped the tears away. "Today just feels like a dream to me and I don't want to wake up." I remained quiet at that and let her continue. "Why are you guys so nice to me anyways? I'm no one special."

"That's not true at all. You're Rose Potter." She looked at me sharply and I continued onwards. "There is only one Rose Potter on this planet just as there is only one Eros Tonks on this planet. One person out of billions may seem like you're insignificant but there's only one you and no one else like you on this Earth." I flashed her a grin.

"I wasn't let out of the house much for safety reasons, but today I found my first friend and if you can't treat your friends right then what sort of person are you?" She was silent at my declaration and Hedwig took the opportunity to launch herself from her perch and into the darkening night sky. "We can still call the Knights bus if you want to leave. It runs 24/7." She shook her head and leisurely floated down to the ground as I followed her.

She didn't say anything as we walked back to the house and put away the brooms but as I was showing her the guest bedroom she stopped me when I made to leave and I heard her whisper, "Thank you," before she closed the door. It put a smile on my face for the rest of the night and I went to bed happy.


	2. Sorting Feast

The smell of bacon permeated throughout the house, rousing me from my slumber. I blinked away the last remnants of sleep from my eyes and a glance out the window made me frown slightly. The sun had barely even peaked out from the horizon yet, but I couldn't mistake the smell of breakfast being cooked. My curiosity sufficiently peaked, I made my way downstairs as stealthily as I could. Glancing into the kitchen I saw Rose hard at work as she moved around the kitchen with an experienced air as though she had done so many times before. She was dressed in one of my sister's old yellow sundress that she used to wear before she discovered her love of military boots and jeans.

The sound of sizzling bacon filled the air as I stepped into the kitchen proper and making sure she wasn't holding anything I cleared my throat. Rose jumped like a startled rabbit and then turned to face me her eyes wide and a hand clutched to her chest. "I'm sorry to startle you, but what are you making?" I had an amused smile on my face as I watched her visibly call down.

"I'm making breakfast." There was a hint of something in her voice as she said that… perhaps a challenge, but for what?

"I could smell that. I suppose I should have asked why are you making breakfast?" She deflated and drew back a little.

"Was it wrong? I'm sorry, I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done." Ah, time to backpedal a little bit.

"Oh, no, no there's nothing wrong with it I was just surprised. Do you need any help?" There was a look of surprise again as though she was unused to people offering to help her, but she still slowly nodded.

"Do you know how to make eggs sunny side up?" I nodded as I made my way over to the stove top. One glance at the array of food that was cooking made me frown though.

"I think you have your portions a little low. There's only enough here to really feed 4 people." There was a moment of silence as I put two teaspoons of butter onto a pan.

"Oh, I didn't want to presume." I frowned again.

"Presume what? That we wouldn't let you eat the food you cooked?" She didn't say anything but her silence was an answer enough. "Please add enough for another person. It would be the height of rudeness to let a guest go hungry especially one that is making such a thoughtful gesture of cooking us breakfast." I paused as I thought of the Nutrient potion and her too thin frame. "Might as well make it two, just in case."

I couldn't see her face because she leaned down far enough that her hair was covering it but she added enough for two people. Now really wasn't the time to confront or push her on why she felt that she wouldn't be able to eat our food so I let it go for the time being, but kept it in mind nevertheless. The butter was already bubbling so I added the first two eggs to the pan.

Glancing back over to see Rose dealing with four different things at once and I was distracted by movement over by the doorway. Looking towards it I saw my mom standing there with an odd look on her face. When she noticed me looking she motioned me to be quiet and then withdrew from the room leaving me alone with Rose. Other than that the rest of the preparation for breakfast was finished quietly and as I was finished cooking the eggs I would slide them over a platter of baked beans that Rose would hand me.

At the end of it we had six plates filled with buttered toast, sundried tomatoes, baked beans, bacon, sausage and two sunny side up eggs. Quite a hardy meal if I do say so myself. I carefully balanced three of the plates and took them out the main dining area where my family was waiting around the table while my dad read the morning paper. I set the plates down and went back into the kitchen where I saw Rose starting to clean the kitchenware.

"Rose, leave that for now and come on and eat with us." She looked back and forth between me and the pile of dishes.

"But I should-" I cut her off.

"Don't worry about it. All it would take is a swish of a wand to clean them. Come and enjoy breakfast with us." My cajoling seemed to have an effect on her because she slowly set down the dirty dishes as I grabbed the three remaining plates. I walked back into the dining room with Rose close behind me and carefully set the remaining dishes down before setting the extra one in the center of the table.

My mom swished her wand at the extra plate and answered my questioning glance. "It'll keep it nice and warm in case anyone wants more." Folding up the newspaper my dad was the first one to dig into the meal.

"Oh my, this is wonderful. It tastes like something out a restaurant." He took another bite. "Thank you for making this Rose." Both my mom and Dora made similar comments as Rose seemed to be trying to sink into her chair.

"I didn't do much and Tonks did a lot of work as well." She protested weakly but I was having none of that.

"Oh no, I only made the eggs and that was only because I snuck my way into the kitchen while Rose was distracted. I'm sure she could have made them better as well." I bit into a perfectly cooked piece of bacon and hummed at the taste as another blush spread across Rose's face. I heard Dora snort but I ignored it with an ease of practice. She was probably just amused by the fact that we seemed to be trying to out humble each other.

There was a lull in conversation as we all dug in and I was halfway done with my meal before my dad spoke up. "So there was a poacher that tried to steal some dragon eggs from the Hungarian Dragon reserve last night."

"Really? How'd that work out for them?" He glanced down at the paper for a moment before answering my mom's question.

"Not well at all really. Of the four of them only one survived and even he's in critical condition at the moment. Bloody fools the lot of them. What were they even going to do with a dragon egg?"

"Maybe sell it on the black market? It's a class A non-tradable good so it'd probably be worth a lot." Dora pipped in.

"Maybe, but it's still a foolish thing to try to steal an egg from a nesting mother dragon." He let out a sigh and then polished off the last bit of food from his plate. "Anyways I have to get going for work. Rose, thank you once more for such a lovely meal and Eros, thank you as well." I let out a mutter of protest at my name as Rose started fidgeting with her fork. He stood up and sent his plate floating into the kitchen before he walked around the table and gave my mom a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you after work, love."

"Try to squeeze as much money out of the Malfoys as you can dear." He let out a deep bellied laugh as he straightened and started walking away from the table. "I'll do just that." I heard him call out for the Ministry of Magic and the whoosh of flames as the Floo sent him on his way.

There was another period of silence as we finished up our meal and Rose's stomach let out another hungry roar. Dora simply slid the extra plate towards her and when it seemed like she was going to refuse it said, "Look, you've been making yourself smaller for years and yesterday you literally grew several centimeters in a day. You need your magic to keep it that way or you're going to revert to your base form, gaining several more centimeters, and to stop that from happening your body needs food to keep it running." Dora's speech must have gotten through to Rose because she slowly pulled the plate closer and started to eat it.

"Well," my mom stood up from the table and sent her dish floating into the kitchen. "I have some back orders I need to fill for St. Mungos so I'll be in the lab. Dora please make sure to clean the dishes when everyone is done eating."

"Sure mum." As she left I pulled the discarded newspaper towards me and started reading it while I waited for Rose to finish eating. To my everlasting horror I became so absorbed reading the paper I missed a critical piece of conversation between Rose and Dora.

"-thinking we could practice your metamorphmagus talents by going shopping." I twitched as I heard the word shopping and slowly, but steadily, put the paper down to start slinking away from the table. Freedom was within my grasp when a cry of " _Incarcerous_ " came from behind me and thick sturdy ropes rapped themselves around me causing me to crash to the ground.

"Now where do you think you're going lil' brother?" I felt myself being raised up into the air and then floated back into my chair. "You weren't thinking of running away were you?" She blinked her now large doe eyes at me and I shot a betrayed look at Rose when she giggled.

"Err, no never, I just forgot that I had something very important to do very far away." Dora sighed theatrically and cupped her cheek with one of her hands.

"You see Rose, boys just can't understand the excitement that is shopping and they need a firm guiding hand to help them overcome their inadequacies. Mum we're going shopping." Dora shouted the last part out.

"Have fun dears." Her voice faintly came back to us.

Outnumbered and outgunned I resigned myself to my fate. "If we're going shopping I need to change out of my pajamas." She waved her wand at me and the ropes vanished. "Muggle or magical shopping?"

"Weren't you listening?" I gave her an exasperated look. I wouldn't have asked if I had been. "Right, muggle." I quickly left the table and went back to my room to change into jeans and a t-shirt. By the time I had made it back down it seemed like both of them were ready to go. "We're taking the Floo to the Leaky Cauldron and then we'll head into muggle London. Why don't you show Rose how to do it?"

"Right then." I took a pinch of Floo powder. "It's quite easy really, just take a pinch of powder and throw it in like so." The flames turned green and I stepped into them as I called out. "Diagon Alley." The trip was disorientating as usual and as soon as I arrived I stepped away from the fireplace and turned around, readying myself to catch Rose. The first time using the Floo was always the worst and everyone always tripped the first time using it.

I was still surprised though when a red and yellow blur shot out of the fireplace like a cannon ball. "Uff," the wind was knocked out of me as Rose collided, head first, into my stomach sending both of us to the ground. As I lay there wheezing I heard the fireplace flare as Dora stepped through. Amazingly she didn't trip like she usually did and I could see her smirk.

"What happened to you two?" At the sound of Dora's voice Rose seemed to come out of her daze and begin fretting over me.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… are you alright?"

"Fine." I took a deep breath. "Just give me a moment." I managed to sit up while Rose continued to hover next to me. "Woo, I've never seen someone shot out of the Floo before. Did you take a running start at it or something?"

She instantly dropped her head looking downcast and I immediately felt bad. "No, I just…" she trailed off and I tapped her shoulder. As she looked at me I gave her a big smile.

"It's all good. No harm, no foul and I'm sure it was the Floo being wonky." We had attracted quite a few eyes on us as we played out our little drama and Dora seemed to recognize this as she quietly helped both of us up and got us moving towards the door. As soon as we were outside she picked a direction and we started walking.

After about a 10 minute walk we arrived at the Brunswick mall and Dora pulled us in a bee line to the closest clothing store. When we entered the women's side of the store she pulled me behind a clothing rack. "You, girl, now." She snapped at me with a strange gleam in her eyes.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. A shopping trip isn't complete without playing dress up with you." She nodded enthusiastically and I couldn't help the long suffering sigh that came. I should have never have allowed myself to play dress up with her when I was four. It still plagues me to this day. With another sigh and a glance around to see that no one was looking I changed into a blonde haired, cherubic eyed girl.

"Happy now?"

"Ecstatic." She turned to Rose who was looking on with some interest. "Now you and I will pick out some clothes for her and then Tonksie and I will do the same for you later."

And so the torture, I mean fun happy times, stop pointing your wand at me I'm smiling, see, times began. It went on for so long we had to stop for lunch before we were back at it again as Dora dragged us along at her own pace. Rose seemed to enjoy it though she did quite strongly put her foot down on Dora paying for any of her new clothes. In the end there was a compromise that Dora would pay for it now and later when we returned home Rose would pay her back.

It wasn't all play though as Dora and Rose would enter a changing stall and I would hear her couching Rose through minor changes like skin tone or hair color to better match an outfit. Towards the end of the shopping extravaganza Rose had even worked her way up to hair length and style. She was still having trouble holding any of her transformations but it was progress in the right direction.

We had even visited the Tower of London and seen quite a few of the ghosts that hung around there. Of course we couldn't really stop to chat with them because it would have seemed strange to everyone else why we were talking to thin air but it was a fun experience and after her initial fright Rose seemed quite interested in them.

"Don't worry you'll see more than enough of them at Hogwarts. Especially Peeves. Although he's more of a poltergeist than a ghost and his ruddy pranks can ruin your day." Dora explained as we walked back to the Leaky Cauldron. Thankfully I was back to being a male again and all our purchases were safely shrunk and stored in our pockets.

"What kind of pranks does he do?" Rose asked as we walked into the tavern.

"Let's see. I've dealt with dungbombs, tongue twisters, water balloons and rattling suits of armor. That's just what I can think of off the top off my head." She shrugged and put a few knuts next to the Floo powder. "Rose, why don't you go first? Say the Tonk's Residence when you step in."

She took a pinch of powder with a grimace and clearly said, "Tonks Residence," as she stepped into the green fire. I followed next and once I arrived I saw her once more laid out on the floor. I could hear her mutter, "I think the Floo hates me," as I stepped to the side and watched Dora fall through and land with a crash on the floor.

"Bugger." She picked herself off the ground with an ease of practice and then helped Rose up as well.

"Are there any other forms of magical travel? I don't think the Floo agrees with me."

"Eh, me either. There's brooms, the Knight Bus, apparition and portkeys."

"I'm good with brooms. Can we take brooms next time?"

"Sorry, no can do what with the Statute of Secrecy and what not. You'll get used to it though and maybe try to act like you're taking a step as you near the exit for the Floo. It helps a little." She let out a sigh and nodded.

"I kind of need to go get some studying done now. It's my NEWT year and I have to get Exceeds Expectations on every one of my subjects if I want to be an Auror." Her hair drooped and became blue. "It kind of sucks, but it needs to be done and I still have to do all my homework."

"No problem Dora. We'll see you at dinner then?" She nodded and made her way upstairs. Turning back to Rose I tilted my head. "So do you have anything you want to do?"

"Um, no I'm fine doing whatever you want to do." I smiled at her and motioned her to follow me. "Let's practice our magic then." She perked up at that and followed me as I led her to my room. Plucking our first year charms book from my desk she sat down in my armchair as I pulled my desk chair next to her. Flipping through the first few pages I found a colour changing spell that seemed easy enough. I grabbed two pillows and showed her the page and incantation.

Pointing my wand at the pillow I whispered " _Colovaria."_ I felt no need to shout even though most of the books had spoken about how it was a primer for young witches and wizards. Lo and behold the light blue pillow changed to a dark reddish colour. It also felt substantially less draining than using magic without a wand and I marveled at how much a foci could enhance my control and power usage. Of course I had no intention to stop learning wandless magic as I felt it becoming easier everyday now that I had passed the first hurdle of actually using it.

I looked over and saw that her pillow had become a couple shades darker while she was frowning at it. " _Colovaria."_ She said again and the pillow turned grass green making her face light up. "I can actually do magic," I heard her whisper to herself before she turned to me with a large smile on her face. "What's next?"

We spent the rest of the day going over our first year charms book until we heard my mom yelling out that dinner was ready and with some reluctance closed the charms book. Making our way downstairs I saw my mom and dad sitting at the table with a large platter of casseroles in the middle of the table. Dora came down next looking a little frazzled and slumped into her chair.

Dinner was served and we told my parents what we did today. I received a small smile from my mom and a rueful headshake from my dad when Dora told them about how she played dress up with me. After that I told them about our attempts at magic and they congratulated us but gave us a stern warning not to do magic outside the house or we would receive a warning from the Ministry about underage magic.

By the time everyone had finished eating Rose had begun to fidget and asked in a quiet halting matter if she was able to stay for the night. My mom smiled at her and spoke gently. "Of course you may. I wouldn't turn away my little Eros' first friend. Besides you've been a positive influence getting him away from his books for once."

'Should I be offended? Surely I don't spend that much time reading?' "Hey, I resemble that remark."

"Don't you mean resent?"

"I know what I said." I shot back at Dora and she laughed. Things went from there and Rose stayed the night. Then the night after and after and after until a month had passed and it was time for school to start.

During the month Dora and I had worked together to bring her fledgling metamorphic talents up to par. We had even gotten her back to her base form for a little maintenance which mainly consisted of clipping her nails and cutting her hair until it reached her shoulders instead of her feet. She had still looked thin but after a month of Nutrient potions and food she looked a healthier weight, when she wasn't transformed.

She had also been growing in confidence although she still sometimes had incidents where she would say or do things that kind of screamed abuse of some kind. We just corrected her as gently as possible and didn't make a big deal about it. Let her come to us after she trusted us enough to open up and not push her away by going too far to fast. Just being away from the toxic environment was helping for now.

I stepped out of the Floo and then sidestepped as Rose shot out of it. She slid along the floor and then pushed herself up while growling. "Why can't I get this right?"

"I don't know." I said as I walked up to her. "Maybe the Floo just hates you?"

"I think you're right." She grumbled as she dusted off her robes before looking around the station. Quite a few families were milling around the platform and the large red train sat prominently in the center of the station. I turned around to see the rest of my family come through the Floo although my dad apparated with our luggage and appeared with a loud crack.

Gathering up our luggage we made our way over to the train and started to say our goodbyes. My mom was fiddling with my tie and I resisted the urge to push her hands away. "Make sure to write. You wouldn't want your poor mum to die of loneliness without you or your sister around." I rolled my eyes at that. I'm sure they'll have a celebration the first night we're gone. Might even get a brother or sister out of it.

"I will mum. Please stop messing with my tie, it's fine." She sighed and pulled me into a hug.

"Take care."

"You too." She pulled away and pulled Rose into a hug as well. I could see her stiffen after a moment and then return it.

"Take care as well Rose and try to keep Eros out of trouble."

"Hey!" They both ignored me and looking over I saw I wasn't getting any support from my dad or Dora in this matter.

"I'll try Mrs. Tonks."

"Call me Andi dear." They released their hug and my mom gave a hug to Dora as I got one from my dad. I saw my dad cast the feather weight charm on every ones trunks and we boarded the slowly filling train. We searched for an empty compartment and found one near the back of the train. After helping us get situated Dora picked up her own trunk and smiled at us.

"Alright, I saw some of my friends further up on the train. If you two need anything just come on up and find me or talk to one of the prefects roaming around."

"Okay. We'll see you later." Giving us one last wave she shut the cabin door leaving the two of us alone. I stretched as the whistle blew and I saw a stream of red heads rush through the fake archway leading to King's Cross Station. That would be the Weasley family then. "Well we have 6 hours before we get to Hogwarts. What should we do in the mean time?"

She shrugged and started fiddling with her hair. "I don't know. Maybe talk about the houses. Dora's in Hufflepuff, right? How do they decide which house you go into?"

I regarded her. "Haven't we talked about the house system before?" She shook her head negatively.

"Huh, how did we not?"

"I don't know we were busy with other things." I gave her a cheeky grin.

"Like asking to fly all the time. One would think you're a bird or something based on how much you love it."

"Not as much as someone likes reading."

"Books are good for the soul." I said philosophically. She snorted at that and I mentally grinned at her coming out of her shell more. "Anyways, there's Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Each have their own traits that they are known for. Slytherin for their cunning, Hufflepuff for their loyalty, Ravenclaw for their wit and Gryffindor for their bravery." I frowned a bit. "I don't know how we're sorted and no matter how much I tried to wheedle Dora for information she didn't give it to me."

"Oh, which house do you think you'll end up in?" I thought about it for a moment.

"Probably Ravenclaw, but even if we end up going to different houses we'll still be friends. I would advise you to stay away from Slytherin though."

"Why's that?" She frowned at me.

I thought about how I wanted to phrase this. "While not everyone in Slytherin is bad quite a few families that had ties to You-Know-Who have children in it. You might be targeted if you go there." She looked worried about that and I was quick to reassure her. "They probably won't try anything in school so don't worry too much."

There was another whistle and the train gave a lurch as it started moving. I saw Ron briefly look in on us but catching sight of me he got a weird look on his face and left. "Who was that and why did he look at you funny?" So she saw him as well.

"That was Ron Weasley. Dora used to date his older brother Charlie Weasley and I've met him a few times. He's… okay I guess, but he got really jealous about the fact that I'm a metamorphmagus and he doesn't seem to have much of a filter. Want to play a card game?"

Time passed and we in the middle of our game when there was a knock on the door and it slid open to reveal a middle aged lady standing next to a trolley filled to the brim with sweets. "Anything from the trolley dears?" I shook my head but Rose seemed interested.

"Can I have a box of your Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans?"

"Sure thing dear. That'll be 6 sickles." She handed over the money and sat back down with her newly acquired goods as the door slid closed as the woman left.

"You're braver than I am if you're going to eat those."

She tilted her head at me. "Why?"

"They can be delicious but they do mean every flavour. I had vomit once and I never went back." She looked down at the box before grinning and shaking it at me.

"We'll make a game of it. We each eat one and then describe the flavour. First one to spit something out loses."

"Yuck, no way."

"Please." She gained big doe eyes which with her glittering green eyes made it both endearing and seem like she was staring into your soul. I looked away as quickly as I could.

"That's not fair. You learned that look from Dora." Her laughter filled the compartment.

"She said if I ever wanted you to do something that's what I needed to do." Muttering about my swift and evil revenge against my sister I held out my hand.

"Fine, let's get this over with." She smiled and plopped a black jelly bean onto it. Eyeing it with no small amount of trepidation I bit into it and let out a sigh of relief. "Chocolate."

Rose picked out a red one and ate it. "Cherry." We continued our game until the door slid open once more and a fuzzy, brown haired girl stepped into the compartment.

"Have you seen a-" She trailed off as she stared at me. "Why do you have blue hair?"

"It's rude to stare you know." She blushed and shuffled backwards.

"I'm sorry I just-" I waved it off and had my hair start changing colors. "How are you doing that?" She asked in awe.

"I'm a metamorphmagus and my name's Tonks."

"Nice to meet you my name's Hermione." She sat down next to Rose and it seemed like she was devoting her entire focus on me. "What's a metamorphmagus? Are you a magical creature? Can you change other things? Is your magic changing you on a genetic level?" Question after question was fired out of her mouth like a machine gun and I eventually had to throw up my hands between us.

"Whoa, whoa I can't answer if you keep asking me all these questions." Her mouth clicked shut with an audible noise and she blushed again.

"I'm sorry I'm just so new to magic and I get excited sometimes." I had a calming smile on my face.

"That's no reason to be ashamed of but before I answer your questions this is my best friend Rose. She's a partial metamorphmagus." Hermione seemed like she was going to launch into another stream of question but visibly stopped herself.

"Hello Rose, I'm Hermione and it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you as well."

"Now," Hermione turned her attention back on me with laser like focus. "I'm a metamorphmagus which means that I can do this." I turned into Dora and then grew a duck bill before turning back into my preferred shape. "I can change genders and I have enough control over my form that I can take on animalistic appearances." I gestured at Rose. "Rose as a partial can only stay female but she can change her size and shape if she wants to." Rose shyly changed her hairstyle and I saw the tiniest spark of jealousy in Hermione's eyes before it seemed to be blown away by curiosity.

"Can you learn how to become a metamorphmagus?" I couldn't help but chuckle until I saw it was upsetting her.

"Sorry, I was just thinking that Rose asked the same question when she first met me. To answer your question though it's something that you're born with and the fact that there are three of us going to Hogwarts is almost astronomical." She opened her mouth but I had already anticipated her next question. "The person I changed to was my sister Dora and she's the other one. She's also in her final year."

I could tell she was going to ask even more questions when the compartment door slid open and a grease ball came in with his two trained monkeys. "I heard Rose Potter is in this compartment." His eyes roved over us, dismissing Hermione and giving me a sneer before his eyes landed on Rose. "Are you Rose Potter?"

"Yes." I could tell by her tone she wasn't happy to be talking to him.

"The name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Hermione let out a little giggle at the introduction and probably unintentional James Bond style of greeting. His gaze moved towards her and his eyes narrowed.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, um, you sounded like a character from a movie and-" He cut her off and glared at her.

"Shut up, you buck toothed mudblood." She reeled back as though struck and seeing that she was properly cowed turned back to Rose to stick out his hand. "As a Malfoy I can make sure you find the right sort of wizard families unlike the blood traitor and the mudblood here."

"Are you offering to be my friend?"

He puffed up. "Of course."

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to decline. I'll make my own way." There was a second or two as the words penetrated his skull and into that pea sized thing he called a brain before he scowled at her and he slowly lowered his hand.

"You'll regret this Potter." He said with more than a hint of venom in his tone. 'Oh please, get a line from somewhere other than a crappy comic book villain.' I thought as I subtly palmed my wand and cast a hex on him. He gave us all one last sneer and then slammed the door as he left.

As soon as he was gone Rose turned to me. "Why didn't you say anything?" She asked curiously or do anything was the silent question. In response I held up my wand and twirled it between my fingers. He eyes narrowed briefly then widened in realization before she started giggling. "What did you do?"

"Who? Me?" I made my face seem like the perfect picture of innocence. "Nothing at all, but for some reason my dear cousin will have a serious case of itching sensation on what passes as his manly bits shortly." Rose's giggles became full on laughter and Hermione soon joined as well. The sound of laughter permeated our compartment for a while before we calmed down enough that Hermione was up for another round of questions.

"What does mudblood and blood traitor mean? He said them both with such contempt they must mean something bad." I sighed at the question and ran a hand through my hair.

"Do you know what the KKK is?" She nodded and I continued. "There is a certain section within the pureblood elite that are similar and it's our version of calling a black person what they call them. It refers to people who have two muggles, or non-magical parents."

"That's horrible and he called me that." There was a note of incredulousness in her tone as though she couldn't come to terms with it.

"I'm afraid so. Please don't judge our society by one person or group of people though. For the most part it's, well pardon the pun but magical." I looked out of the window to see the country side blurring past us. "Blood traitor ties in with mudblood because during the war that ended 10 years ago that same group would call any pureblood that resisted them traitors to their cause hence the name." I saw that Rose was getting a little uncomfortable about the conversation especially after I said when it ended.

"Oh, I read about that in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. They were called Death Eaters and they were led by someone called You-Know-Who, but they fell apart after their leader died when he tried to kill Rose Potter. Do you know the leader's name? I couldn't find it anywhere." Rose had started fidgeting with her hair and she ducked her head down so I couldn't see her face. Time to get off this subject.

"His name was Voldemort and the reason his name isn't spoken of is because he put a Taboo on his name during the war. If you spoke his name Death Eaters could apparate to you and a lot of people died that way. I would also appreciate it if you didn't talk about my friend like she wasn't even here as well."

Hermione blinked and then her eyes grew wide as she connected the dots. Turning to Rose she began to rapidly talk at her. "I'm so, so sorry. What I said was insensitive in the extreme. I can make it up to you if you give me a chance."

Rose had emerged from behind her curtain of hair and was looking at Hermione with a look I didn't recognize. "It's fine. It happened a long time ago and I don't remember it." 'Maybe not but it still affects you.' The compartment descended into an awkward silence.

"You came into here looking for something didn't you?" I asked just to clear the air a little. It seemed to take a second for her to switch gears from the abrupt topic change.

"Neville! I came here to see if either of you have seen a toad?" I looked at Rose and then we both shook our heads.

"Sorry, but we haven't seen a toad. I'm sure if you ask a prefect they could summon the toad for you though." Her eyes lit up as she stood suddenly.

"Of course, thank you so much. I have to go find Neville and get his toad back." She ran out of the compartment and the door slid closed with a click. As soon as she was gone I turned back to Rose.

"Well," I said lightly. "That was a whirlwind and a half."

She let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah." I eyed her drooped posture for a moment before continuing.

"You do realize that by refusing to even shake my cousin's hand you told him you consider him unworthy?"

"He is unworthy though and what was I supposed to do? No one insults my friends." Her tone had dropped for the last part and I could detect more than a hint of anger as well. It was kind of heartwarming that she would get angry on my behalf.

"Oh I'm not criticizing your decision. The little shite deserves worse, but I just wanted to let you know."

"Language." She cried and then blushed when I gave her an amused look.

"Do you want to continue our game then?" She looked down at the opened box of beans before sighing and started putting them away.

"Not right now. How close are we to Hogwarts anyway?" The whistle blew right afterwards alerting us to the fact that we were ten minutes out.

"I'd say pretty close." I said cheekily and she threw a jelly bean at me. Catching the jelly bean I gave her a grin before popping it into my mouth and almost immediately spitting it out. "Dung." I managed to cough out as I pointed my wand at my mouth and cast freshening charms into it.

"I win." She let out a laugh at my annoyed look and after I couldn't taste crap in my mouth anymore I slid my wand back into its holster.

Soon enough the train pulled into an outdoor station and looking around I saw Hagrid standing in the sea of exiting children with a large lantern. "Right, then! First years! This way, please! Come on now! Come on, don't be shy!" His loud booming voice cut through the conversations of the surrounding students and we made our way over to him.

"Hello Hagrid."

"Hello there Rose."

He only stopped his shouting for a brief moment to greet her before he was shouting once more. The crowd of first years grew larger and larger until no more people were coming off the train and all the upper years had left. "Right then, you lot follow me." He led the gaggle of children down a series of steep steps and onto a dock where multiple boats were floating in the calm water. "No more than four to a boat."

I spotted a boat that had two girls on it and motioned to Rose that we should take it. She agreed and we sat down next to a red headed girl with blue eyes and a blonde girl with brown eyes.

The red headed one looked at us curiously before introducing herself. "Hello there. My name is Susan Bones and this is Hannah Abbott." 'Bones? Is she related to Amelia Bones, head of the Magical Law Enforcement?' Regardless I gave her a polite smile as I replied.

"Hello, I'm Tonks, just Tonks, thank you very much." I saw Susan's eyes sharpen at my name while Hannah just looked confused. "This is my best friend Rose Potter."

There was a sound not dissimilar to a shriek from Hannah. "Are you really? I've read all the books about you and I especially loved the one with the Arabian Prince. Oh, it was so sad that you had to be separated from your true love by an evil Egyptian wizard."

"Err, there's books about me like that?" Rose sounded truly horrified at the idea and she looked to me for confirmation. I could only shrug helplessly. I had read a few chapters of one of those books and it read like a cheap romance novel so I had never picked up another one since. I was too busy exploring magic to be distracted by such things.

Susan seemed to notice how uncomfortable Hannah was making Rose and she lightly grasped Hannah's leg. Giving Hannah a look when she turned towards her, Hannah seemed to shrink in on herself as she blushed. The rest of the boat ride was an awkward silence until the gasping of the surrounding people drew our attention forwards. Turning around I caught sight of a majestic castle looming tall over the lake such that it silhouetted the sky. I caught the quiet whisper of, "It's beautiful," from Rose but didn't comment on it as we neared an archway covered in greenery.

"Watch your heads here!" Hagrid's voice boomed out to us and I saw quite a few people duck even though the archway was a good meter or two above our heads even if we had been standing. We reached the landing and after ensuring that everyone was safe and sound Hagrid turned to a sturdy looking door and pounded on it thrice.

The door swung open and an older witch in emerald green robes and a stern expression appeared. "Got all the first years for you McGonagall. Safe and sound."

"Thank you Hagrid that will be all." He gave her a nod and then lumbered off as she turned to face us. "Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Now, while you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you house points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup." She gazed over us as though looking for any potential rule breakers before she spun on the spot. "Follow me then children." We followed her through a maze of corridors until we approach a looming doorway where she turned to face us once more.

"Wait here for one moment while everything is made ready." She entered the doorway and the surrounding children started whispering to each other. Most of the conversation seemed to be centered on how we would be sorted and I heard Ron claim his twin brothers told him we would have to wrestle a troll. Quite unlikely considering even in my brief interactions with them they seemed the sort to pull a fast one at the drop of a hat.

"I really do believe that we should get rid of that menace, Peeves, once and for all." Two ghosts floated through the wall next to us eliciting a round of screams from the children.

"I don't disagree with you but the Baron is the only one that can control him. You know that Friar. Oh," the taller ghost exclaimed as he caught sight of us. "First years waiting to be sorted then."

"Indeed," the fatter ghost that looked like a monk spoke. "Perhaps you'll be going my house. The house of the noble Hufflepuff. Just call me the Fat Friar and I'll be your house ghost if you're sorted into Hufflepuff." Before the other ghost could talk McGonagall walked back out of the doorway and saw the ghosts floating above the still scared children.

"Shame on you two for scaring the children so. Off with you." They scattered as she turned to face us once more. "I apologize for that but I'm here to inform you that we are ready to begin." She held up a scroll. "As I call out your names you will come up to the front of the hall to be sorted. Is that clear?" When no one seemed ready to question her she turned and led us into the main hall.

I looked around with interest as I saw Rose do the same. The hall was huge and had four tables with a unique banner hanging over each of them along with a long table at the end where the teachers were sitting and watching over the students. In the air hundreds of candles floated and above that hung the sky instead of the ceiling. "Wow, this is amazing!" Rose whispered next to me and I nodded in agreement. As we were taking in the sights McGonagall had moved to the end of the room and place a ratty looking hat down on a stool. As I watched a mouth seemed to form on it as it began to sing.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve and chivalry,  
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,  
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
If you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin,  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folk use any means,  
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

There was a polite clapping from the students sitting down as I did the best I could to stop myself from sweating. The stupid hat could read my mind. What would it do if I found out I'm reincarnated? I was broken from my thoughts as I felt a tug on my left arm. I glanced over at Rose and saw her looking at me with concern. "Are you alright?"

'Was I really that obvious?' I sent what I hoped was a reassuring smile at her and nodded. "I'm fine I just got nervous all of a sudden." She seemed mollified at that and we turned back to see McGonagall unroll the scroll.

"Abbott, Hannah." The girl we had shared a boat with timidly made her way up to the stool and the hat was laid upon her head.

Soon enough it let out a cry of "Hufflepuff," and her tie and trimming turned yellow as she hopped off the stool and made her way over to the clapping table.

"Bones, Susan."

"Hufflepuff." The cycle repeated itself and I kind of tuned out the rest of them only absently noting the Hermione went to Gryffindor when she was clearly a Ravenclaw.

Malfoy only had the hat on his head for a mere second before he was sorted into Slytherin and I couldn't blame the hat for not wanting to be on such a grease filled head for longer than necessary. Soon enough Rose's name was called and the hall devolved into whispers. I could see her start to shrink in on herself and reaching out I gave her hand a light squeeze. She startled at the contact but then gave me a small smile before walking down the hall and the hat was placed on her head.

It sat there for long enough that the whispers grew louder and I saw her frown. Eventually though it called out "Gryffindor," and the Weasley twins started a chant of "We got Potter! We got Potter!" as the entire table erupted with cheers. I noted that the Slytherin table barely clapped and quite a few off them actually scowled at the announcement.

I missed the next few names being called as I was lost in my thoughts but eventually I heard McGonagall call, "Tonks, Eros." There was a few laughs at my name from the older students and unconsciously my hair turned colors. That sent out another wave of whispers throughout the hall but I didn't bother listening in as I walked up the hall and sat on the chair as the hat was lower onto my head.

 _What have we here? Oh, it's been quite a few years since I've last seen someone who's lived more than one life._

I felt the beginnings of panic set in again before what it said next eased my worry somewhat.

 _Fear not. The enchantments woven into me stop me from revealing any information I see in a students mind. Although more than once I wish I had been able to. Many a dark lord or lady could have been stopped if only I could have revealed what I saw within them._

'Oh, yeah that could have been useful.'

 _Indeed._ The sorting hat switched tracks. _It's always odd sorting a twice born. The mind of an adult in the body of a child although I see you've been experimenting with your other power as well._ There was a feeling of amusement coming from the hat as it said the last bit and I felt a blush form that was so bright I was glad I wasn't in Middle Earth or the Rohirrims might have rode to Gondor's aid.

'It was only once. Okay it was twice, but I just wanted to know what it was like from a female perspective to masturb-' I cut myself off. 'Why am I even having this discussion? Please get on with the sorting before I die of embarrassment.'

 _As you wish._ I felt something shift through my mind. _Hmm, plenty of desire to seek out knowledge. Yet you seek out knowledge for more than just knowing and use it as power that you horde jealously. Slytherin or Ravenclaw would suit you but you are fiercely loyal to those that gain it. The problem is that almost no one in Hufflepuff would meet your requirements for friendship either being seen as too childish or not unique enough. Yes, you have the problem of many twice born in connecting with others and your ability to change shape didn't help in that regard so you shut yourself away except for your family and now a girl who can change like you._

I lowered my head at his recital of my life. It was easier to live that way but Rose needed a friend and so I had extended my hand. 'I've heard from my sister about how ostracized she was for being different and I couldn't let someone like us go through that alone.'

 _An honorable deed. I can see now that you would flounder in Ravenclaw and I do want to prevent a bloodbath by sending you to Slytherin and having you duke it out with your cousin. No, I can see the best choice for you and Rose would be-_ "Gryffindor."

The sorting hat was lifted off my head and I blinked at the sudden light before hopping off the stool. I blushed again as Dora gave me a piercing whistle and vowed to get back at her later for that on top of teaching Rose that forbidden technique. I made my way over to Rose who was beaming at me as she made room next to her. Gratefully, I sat down next to her and waited as the last few students were sorted.

After a 'Zabini, Blaise' was sorted into Slytherin and the clapping quieted down Dumbledore stood up from his highly stylized chair and motioned for silence. "I welcome you all to Hogwarts for the start of a new Year. Now, before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you." He sat back down and there were quite a few confused faces and sporadic clapping from his odd statement.

I didn't really focus on it too much because as soon as he sat down the tables filled with all manner of food. "That was odd." Rose commented next to me and I shrugged as I reached for a piece of chicken.

"Some say Dumbledore's gone off his rocker, but that not really our concern is it?" She hesitated for a moment and then seemed to come to the same conclusion as she reached for the potatoes. We ate mostly in silence with a few polite greetings to our other tablemates but nothing life changing. About halfway through the meal Rose suddenly gasped and clutched at her forehead where I knew her scar was. For some reason it refused to move even when she changed her shape and we could only assume it had something to do with the Killing Curse.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly but with some concern.

"Yeah," she said distractedly. "My scar just hurt all of a sudden. Do you know the guy sitting next to the guy with a purple turban?" I looked over to the teacher's table and saw who I thought was Professor Snape based off of Dora's tales. He had a slightly crooked nose and was scowling in our direction at the moment so he fit her description.

"I think that's Professor Snape. He's our potions teacher."

"Oh." She looked back down at her food and began to pick at it again. I kind of wanted to continue the conversation but this wasn't really the place for it so I began eating again. The feast wore down and as most people finished eating Dumbledore stood back up as all the food and plates vanished.

"Now that you are fed and watered I have a couple of announcements to make. This year we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mr. Quirrell, who has recently returned from a sabbatical in Albania." There was polite clapping as the nervous looking man stood up and took a shaky bow. "In addition I must inform you that all Zonko's products are forbidden. For the full list of forbidden items please see Mr. Filch. I believe that the list is quite long now. I must also state that the Forbidden Forest is indeed quite Forbidden to everyone. I have also been told by Mr. Filch that the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone that does not wish a painful death. Thank you."

There was sporadic muttering from the students at the last announcement and I frowned at it. 'What the hell is there that would kill us and why are they keeping it in a school filled with children. Actually I better question. Why the hell would they announce it? That's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.' My thoughts were interrupted as Dumbledore continued talking. "Now let us begin our school song."

He waved his wand and glowing words formed in midair. "Off we go then." I wanted to plug my ears as it would seem that everyone in the wizarding world is completely tone deaf with no sense of pacing or standard beat. The other teachers seemed to share my opinion but Dumbledore nodded along to the song and then seemed to wipe a tear away at the end. "Ah, the beauty of music. Well then, off you trot."

The main hall exploded into motion as prefects began shouting out to the younger years to follow them and then each table filed out of the hall. We took a winding route up the castle and arrived in front of a painting of a larger woman in pink. "Right you lot." Percy Weasley turned to us. "This is the entrance to the Gryffindor tower. You need a password to get in and it'll change every month with the new one posted inside. The current password is _Caput Draconis."_

The painting swung open and we filed into a common room decked in shades of red and gold. There were several couches and chairs surround a roaring fireplace and two sets of stairs leading further upwards. "On the right is the girl's dormitory. Boys aren't allowed there and on the left is the boy's dorms. Boys follow me." The boys followed after Percy while the girls followed our female perfect.

Percy stopped at a door and opened it to reveal five separate beds with our trunks already set at the end of a bed. "Breakfast starts at 7 and classes start at 9:30. I'll wake you up tomorrow and escort you down so don't stay up too late tonight." With one last glance at us he left and the five of us turned to face one another.

Introductions went all around and I found I was roommates with Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom and of course Ron Weasley. I tried to keep an open mind about the last one but he had soured any potential relationship between us already and I could still see a pit of jealousy in his eyes whenever he looked at me. I had to do my standard metamorphmagus introduction although I chose not to mention or change into a girl at all. I would be sleeping in the same room as these guys and I didn't need that kind of attention when they were older. Actually come to think of it I could probably walk up the girl's side of the dorm if I transformed. Food for thought I suppose.

Both Seamus and Dean seemed cool with my powers and Neville just seemed shy. Eventually though we did run out of things to talk about and after selecting the bed that was in the corner I got changed into my pajamas and slid the curtains closed. I could barely wait for my first day to formerly learn magic and sleep took a long time coming.


	3. Starting School

I woke suddenly to Percy's voice and a loud banging noise that sounded like a cannon going off. "Up and at 'em firsties. Come on now, if you don't get up Ron I'm leaving you here and you won't get breakfast." I heard grumbling and yawns from my roommates and sitting up I pulled the curtain to the side. Seeing that no one was really paying me any mind I stood up and winched slightly at the cold floor. 'Would it kill them to put some heating charms down?' Grumbling along with the others I got dressed for the day. Since I didn't know what classes I had for today I just stuffed everything into my expandable book bag then a quick swish of the wand and my mouth was sparkly clean. All set for the day and seeing that everyone else was still getting ready I went down to the common room to wait for Rose. I saw Rose sitting down on one of the couches as I exited the staircase and I pulled one my sister's trademark as I plopped down next to her.

"Wotcher, Rose."

"Morning Tonks." She looked kind of tired and I commented on that.

"Did you get enough sleep last night? You look pretty tired right now." She shook her head and yawned.

"Everyone in the dormitory wanted to talk." A small grimace formed on her lips and I had a good idea on what they wanted to talk about. "Then I just couldn't fall asleep afterwards because we're really here at a school to learn magic!"

"I know! I had trouble sleeping as well. All the stories Dora has told me about this place kept me up. Did you get along with your roommates though? You'll be with them for the next 7 years."

She paused for a moment and then nodded. "It'll be fine. Hermione was there along with Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and Megan Cloe." I noticed Percy walk past with my roommates in tow and nudged Rose.

"Let's follow along and go get some breakfast unless you want to wait for your roommates." She shook her head and we followed Percy along the confusing corridors to the main hall. "I really don't know why the stairs move. Seems like a falling hazard to me if you think about it." I commented to Rose as we reached the great hall. I could of sworn we went upwards for the last bit but somehow we reached the ground floor.

She shrugged as we sat down and plates of food appeared before us. I looked around and grabbed some of it before looking for some tea. "I wish I could have a good cuppa right now." Another plater appeared before me along with a tea cup. "Lovely," I commented as I poured a cup and took a small sip. 'Ah, tea has really grown on me since I was reborn here.'

"What just happened? Does the table grant wishes or something?" I looked up as I heard Hermione's voice and watched as she sat opposite from us.

"Um, no it was probably the House Elves."

"House Elves?" Both Rose and Hermione asked. I looked between them before taking a small sip of tea.

"Small magical creatures that love to cook and clean."

"But, what do you pay them?"

"Excuse me?" I blinked at the question.

"What do you pay them for cooking and cleaning for you?" Hermione asked.

"Magic." I said simply but continued as I saw her scowl at the semi non answer. "They feed off excess magic produced by us and the surrounding area."

"What? That's like slavery though. How can you not pay them?" Taking a moment I looked around at the surrounding students. Most of the upper years and purebloods were scowling at her question while the younger years and muggleborns seemed to agree.

"Hermione," I set down my tea cup. "You're trying to equate human values and morals onto an entirely separate race. House Elves feed off of our magic and love to cook and clean. Ask any of them what they want out of life and they'll say to serve. If you tried to pay them they would give your money back because they have no use for it." I looked over and saw that her face had settled into someone who was preparing for an argument so I raised my hands in a placating manner.

"Don't just take my word for it though. Try reading up on them and actually talking to them before you get in a huff about them. It's too early in the morning to have an argument." She deflated slightly and slowly nodded. Seeing that I had headed off a shouting match about culture clash I picked up my cuppa and took another sip. A tap on my shoulder though made me look over into the green eyes of Rose.

"Could we go see them sometime?" She had an expression on her face that I couldn't place and I nodded.

"Of course we can. They don't like to be seen while they work and I don't know where they gather but I'm sure that Dora knows. We can go ask her about it later." That seemed to mollify her and the rest of the meal was relatively peaceful. I did have to wrinkle my nose at the dreadful eating habits of Ron though. Chew with your mouth closed you cretin. No one wants to see your half chewed food and for God's sake stop talking with your mouth full and spraying food everywhere. The chap sitting across from him looked quite grim as he dodged food particles.

"Mr. Eros." I looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing over my shoulder holding out a sheet of paper. "Your schedule." I took it and spoke up before she could move on.

"Professor. Please just call me Tonks." I swear I saw a twitch on her lips as though she refrained from smiling.

"Of course Mr. Tonks." She moved on and handed a schedule to Rose. We both leaned together to compare our schedules as soon as she left.

"It seems like we have the same classes." She commented as I heard Ron moaning in the background about having potions first thing with those slimy Slytherins.

"Indeed. I don't really like the fact that Astronomy is in the middle of the week like that but it looks pretty decent with plenty of break time. Especially on Friday." I finished off the last of my breakfast as a swarm of owls came swooping in from the ceiling bearing letters and newspapers. I didn't seem to have anything and neither did Rose.

Standing up I asked her, "Do you want to go see Dora and see if she knows where the House Elves are?"

"Sure." She stood up and we walked over to Dora who was laughing at something one of her classmates said.

"Hey Dora. Can I ask you a question?" Dora turned away from the brunette woman and looked at me with a large smile.

"Of course lil' brother. What's up?"

"Rose and I were wondering where the House Elves live because she wants to meet one."

She seemed to think about it for a second. "You have to go to the kitchen if you want to meet them. It's directly under the great hall behind a painting of a fruit bowl and you have to tickle the pear to get in. I can show you guys where it is this weekend if you want?"

"That would be great." Rose said and I nodded. It's always good to know where the kitchens are then you can get snacks if you want them.

"Great." Dora said and a mischievous look came to her eyes. "You know the entire family pegged you as a Ravenclaw but then you just blushed so brightly under the sorting hat and got sorted into Gryffindor. One wonders what happened?" Her words set off some excited whispering and I caught a few words like "love" and "romantic" from the surrounding people.

Rubbing the back of my head sheepishly was probably a mistake as it just increased the volume of the whispers. "Nothing important. Oh, look at the time. Come on Rose we have to get to class." I fled but stopped just outside the great hall doors because I had no idea where to go. A couple of seconds later Rose appeared next to me and out of the corner of my eye I could see she was blushing lightly. Clearing my throat I stepped up to one of the painting. This one was a group of knights galloping around on horses as they jousted. "Excuse me, sir knights."

They slowed and one of them lifted his visor to regard me. "Yes lad?"

"Would you happen to know the way to the potions classroom?"

"Of course. Go down two flights of stairs, hang a right, go up a flight of stairs, take a left and go down one more flight of stairs." I raised an eyebrow at that. Apparently going to Hogwarts is good cardio if I would have to traverse so many stairs everywhere.

"Thank you sir knight." He bobbed his head then set his visor back down as they resumed their jousting. Turing back to Rose I smiled at her intrigued look.

"How do magical painting work?" I hummed a bit as we started walking down the stairs.

"I'm not an expert on them but I know for self-portraits the witch or wizard has their picture painted before they die and they imprint their magic into it. When they die their magic is activated and the painting comes to life so to speak with their memories. Of course they're not really them and more of a collection of memories powered by magic. For group picture or animals I'm not quite as sure."

There was silence for a bit before Rose spoke again. "Do you think my parents made a portrait?" She asked in a small voice. I bit my lip at the subject and spoke carefully.

"I'm not sure. While the Potters are a Noble family and they do have a seat on the Wizengamot. It is currently in disuse until you come of age and what I'm trying to say from this is that most Noble families do tend to have portraits painted. You would have to check with the goblins for any property or family heirlooms in storage." She perked up considerably at that and I could almost feel the happy vibes coming off her.

"How would I do that?"

"Well I assume you don't want to wait for school year to end." She shook her head and I nodded. "If you write a letter to your account manager they would send you an itemized list along with your next accounting report in October."

"They do that?" I slowed to a stop and turned to face her. Whatever my expression was it made her start fidgeting.

"Yes." I said slowly. "They do and as heir apparent of the House of Potter you should have been receiving them." I tapped on my chin for a moment in thought. "In fact have you ever received any letters from the wizarding world?"

"Um, no, never until the Hogwarts letter came."

"Huh, maybe you have some type of ward redirecting mail away from you." 'Which was probably for the best,' I mused as we started walking again. I could only imagine the sheer amount of mail she would have received from fans along with cursed or poisoned mail. "I think after dinner tonight you should go talk with Professor McGonagall and get her to take you to Gringotts later. They might be pissed if you haven't been responding to bank inquiries."

"How badly pissed off do you think they would be?" I let out a humorless laugh.

"Somewhere between not at all and starting another rebellion." I felt a soft blow on my shoulder.

"Don't be a prat." I gave her a smile as we arrived at what I thought was the potions doorway. Judging by the other first years gathered around it I was pretty confident in my observation. It was interesting to see how divided Gryffindor's and Slytherin's were as each new person would stand next to their housemates and the only interactions between the two were snide remarks. After an uncomfortable couple of minutes the door to the room quietly opened and we all filed in. The room was filled with an assortment of bottled ingredients and tables in the center of the room along with a large chalkboard in the front.

Since the tables seemed to be meant for two people per table I sat next to Rose and after the last person sat down the door closed with a clang. As soon as it did so our Professor seemed to swoop in from another doorway, his cloak billowing out behind him, until he stood at the front of the class glaring down at us. The entire class was silent as his dark eyes surveyed us all.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but I caught every word, Snape seemed to have the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death—if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

I blinked at the last part. He had been doing such a good job entrancing us and then to finish it off like that? Why would he finish it like that? I didn't get my answer before he pulled out a scroll. "As I call your names you will respond promptly." He started listing off the names yet when he arrived at Rose's I saw his eyes flicker to her for a moment before he called her name out. "Ah, yes. Rose Potter – our new celebrity."

I saw Rose shrink slightly as she became the focus of the entire class. "Potter!" He said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" She shrunk a bit further as I saw Hermione's hand rise into the air.

"I don't know, sir."

"Tut, tut- clearly fame isn't everything." He seemed to ignore Hermione's hand for the moment. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"Um, in the stomach of a goat, sir." I grinned slightly at his taken aback look. Rose had wanted to see my mom create a potion and the first thing she had done was inform her of about being safe around potions because most of the things were poison to humans before they were mixed properly in a potion.

"Hmph, a lucky guess that anyone could muddle their way to it. One more then to see if you can get more than 50%. What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Rose was silent for a moment as though thinking while Hermione was practically vibrating in her chair with her hand held high.

"I think it's the same plant, sir?"

"You think or you know?"

"Know sir." He scowled at her.

"An adequate answer I suppose. For you information powdered asphodel with an infusion of wormwood creates a sleeping potion so powerful it is called the Draught of Living Death. While monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant it also goes by the name aconite." His gaze moved around the classroom and he sneered. "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" There was the sounds of shuffling papers and the scratching of quills as we wrote what he had said down.

Once Snape deemed that everyone was finished he picked up the scroll and resumed reading off the names. One he got to mine I spoke up. "Please just call me Tonks, Professor."

"A point from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn." He glared at me as though challenging me to speak again but I just remained silent. I had already said everything I wanted to say until I felt tendrils extend into my mind. Quickly, I ducked my head, breaking our eye contact and losing the sensation of my mind being invaded. I had been practicing for Occlumency for about a year now and the only thing I've managed to do is center myself, in regards to my emotions, and create a paper thin wall around my mind that only served to alert me that someone had come knocking.

'It would seem that I needed more practice if our teacher knew Legilimency.' I glanced over at Rose for a moment. I should probably help her get started as well but Occlumency was difficult to learn without someone trying to pry things from the outside and I had no wish for anyone to do so. My fingers tapped out a steady rhythm on my leg as I thought and Snape finished the last of the names on the list.

"Now," he said quietly. "The instructions are on the board. You will have an hour to complete the assigned potion, the boil cure, starting now." He swished his wand and detailed instructions for a boil cure potion were revealed as the chalkboard flipped over. Snapping out of my thoughts I quickly wrote down the instructions while the rest of the class scrambled to the sides of the room for ingredients except for Rose.

"What are you doing?" She asked me quietly.

"Writing down the instructions so that when the fumes start going up I can still read the instructions." She seemed to agree with my method and wrote down the instructions as well. As I was doing that I felt the gaze of our Professor on us but he seemed disinclined to comment on our behavior and let us finish.

After that the rest of the class went well for the most part as Snape stalked between the tables snapping out vitriol remarks when he saw anything wrong. Unfortunately, he didn't catch Neville's work soon enough and I saw his cauldron melt as the potion splattered onto his arms. "Stupid boy." Snape spit out as he glided over to the now crying Neville. "Added porcupine quills before turning the fire off didn't you?" He waved his wand and the remaining potion vanished. "Off with you to the nurse's office. Ask the portraits for help if you can't manage to find your way."

He turned towards Rose and opened his mouth before he seemed to think better of it and turned to Ron who was at the same workbench. "You, Weasley, why didn't you tell Longbottom not to add the quills? Were you trying to make your potion look better than his?" He peered into Ron's cauldron. "I can assure you that you've failed in this regard. The potion is worthless."

"What? No I-" Snape cut him off.

"A point off for not following directions and allowing your classmates to be in danger." Ron's mouth clicked shut and he gave a mulish glare towards Snape. They glared at each other for a moment before Ron was the first to look away and Snape gave him a sneer before looking around. "Well? What are you looking at? Get back to work."

The rest of the class passed quickly enough and at the end of it both Rose and I bottled a sample of the light green potion and presented it to Snape. He took both vials and labeled them before holding them up to the light. "Adequate, for Gryffindor's, I suppose." We walked out without saying anything even though I knew the potions were worth an EE at the least if not an O.

As soon as we had left the room and walked a little ways away I pulled out my schedule to look at. "Well he was a cheerful fellow wasn't he?" I commented lightly to Rose as I looked at the paper. 'History of Magic next.'

"I think he hates me." She said quietly as I rolled the schedule back up.

"I think he hates everybody equally. The only people Dora's heard him be polite to are his Slytherins so don't let it get you down." She nodded and we began to climb the stairs as we followed the crowd to the next class. It didn't take long to get to and as we sat down an ancient looking old man floated into the room and settled behind the desk.

"Good afternoon class. My name is Professor Binns and I will be you History of Magic teacher for the next five years." His voice was so dry and monotone it was kind of hard to pay attention to him. "Let us start off with the history of Uric the Oddball who was known for wearing a jellyfish as a hat…" Binns droned on and on as the class continued and I saw several students slump onto their desks, falling asleep in the middle of his lecture. I suppose I might have succumbed as well but I've had to deal with High School and then College courses so this was nothing. Glancing over I saw Rose head down and drooling slightly on her notebook. 'It would seem like I have to take notes for the both of us then.'

The lecture continued without pause as Binns didn't need to breath at all being a ghost and at the end of it only Hermione and I were awake to hear the bell toll signaling the end of class. Putting away everything I gentle shook Rose awake.

"Huh? What? Tonks, what happened?"

I grinned at her disoriented state. "You totally fell asleep with most of the class and drooled all over your book."

"Oh." Her cheeks turned red and she began scrubbing at her face to get all the drool off it.

"You missed a spot." I pointed at her book and she snatched it off the table and stuffed it into her bag.

"You saw nothing." My grin was too wide to be normal.

"Of course. Shall we go get some lunch then? I'm starving." Right on que my stomach let out a rumble and I laughed. "See. My body knows what time it is."

We stood and made our way down to the great hall where we had a quick lunch and then it was back to learning again. For our next class we had charms with Professor Flitwick. The Professor himself was short. He stood about the height of a goblin and had a filled out mustache along with a long nose. He stood at the front of the room on a huge pile of books that might have had a desk underneath them at some point. As he got to Rose's name he let out a squeak and nearly toppled off his stand of books before barely recovering in time to avoid falling.

Everyone let out a laugh at his antics and I liked him immediately. Anyone that would make a fool of themselves to take the pressure off Rose I liked. After he finished rollcall he started off with a short speech. "Welcome, everyone, to your first lesson in charms. Today we will be going over the fundamentals of magic." He extended his arm and his wand snapped to his waiting grasp. "Witches and wizards use foci such as wands and staves to work their magic upon the world. We do this by saying a word that directs our focus. For example, _Avis,_ " a flock of birds shot from his wand and started flying around the room. "Avis meaning bird in latin which focuses my mind on the image of a bird which I can then conjure forth through pushing my magic through my wand." He waved his wand and the birds vanished.

"As you can see though magic is possible to do without words but that will wait until you're older. For now let us try something simple. The word lumos is latin for light and saying it will cause a light to form on the tip of your wand like so." He demonstrated and a bright light formed. "If I want to put this out I would say nox which means extinguish. Now, pull out your wands and try it for yourselves."

My wand snapped to my hand and even though both Rose and I had already tried, and succeeded, at this before it wouldn't hurt to practice. " _Lumos,"_ I quietly intoned as I heard some of my classmates almost yell out as though yelling would make it work better. A bright light formed at the tip of my wand and I looked over to see the same thing with Rose's wand.

"Excellent work you three. I think an additional three points for Gryffindor is in order. Now, try to extinguish the light." I blinked and looked around to see that Hermione had also formed a ball of light as well. Shrugging it off I cut off the flow of my magic and practiced turning the light on and off again without saying anything. Since this was one of the easiest spells it should be simple to silently cast them.

By the time the end of class rolled around I still hadn't gotten the hang of it but I was getting there. After a short walk over to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom we sat down and waited for our teacher to arrive. There was almost a cloying garlic smell that permeated the entire room and I was actually getting a little nauseous just sitting there.

The door to the front of the room opened and Professor Quirrell walked through it with his purple turban draped around his head and a nervous tick on his face. "Good morning class." He stuttered out so badly I had to translate it in my head. "Today we will be learning the stinging hex which will produce a red band and cause swelling around the area. The incantation is _ictus_ and is a straight jab like so." He shot out a light blueish color from his wand. "Please try practicing now."

I felt a headache coming on from trying to translate what he was saying and the smell of garlic. It would seem Rose had one as well because she winched and started rubbing her forehead. "Are you all right?" I whispered to her.

"Fine. Just a headache." She pulled out her wand and started casting. Seeing that she did seem to be okay I pulled out my own and did the same. Class couldn't end soon enough and as soon as the bell tolled both of us almost ran out the door. Rose seemed to take a deep breath and then turned to me. "We have break until dinner right?" I pulled out my schedule to check and then nodded. "What do you want to do until then?"

"We could start on our potions homework or I suppose we could go see if McGonagall is available at the moment." She seemed to consider it for a moment before deciding.

"Can we go see if McGonagall is available?"

"Sure." We followed the directions of the paintings to her classroom and a quick peak inside showed it to be empty. There was a door further back in the room that I assumed led to her office and I motioned towards it. "Do we just go and knock on it, you suppose?" She shrugged helplessly at me and with nothing else to do we entered the room and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" I heard her stern voice as the door swung open. "Oh? What can I do for you two?" I nudged Rose forward.

"Um, Tonks was telling me about how magical portraits are made and that made me think that maybe my parents made one." There was a desperate kind of hope in her voice as she said that. "So then he told me that the goblins would know if I did because they oversee the Potter family stuff and I was wondering if I could go see them over the weekend if it's not too much trouble." As Rose was talking McGonagall's face had eased into an expression of pity.

"Could this not wait for your next financial accounting in October?"

"That's the other thing. I've never gotten any of those or any other letters from the wizarding world until my Hogwarts letter arrived." McGonagall froze for a moment and then muttered something I couldn't hear.

"Very well. Saturday morning after breakfast I can take you to Gringotts."

"Thank you so much." Rose surprised both of us by moving forward and hugging her. I blinked at the sight. That was the first time I've seen her initiate physical contact with anyone so this must be a really big deal to her. I just hope she doesn't break if her parents aren't there. "Could Tonks come with us?" Rose's question dragged me out of my thoughts.

"Um-" I started, but McGonagall cut me off.

"I'm sorry, but this is a private matter between you and the goblins. I also could not take a student from Hogwarts unless their parents permitted it or it is a personal matter such as this."

"Oh." Rose stepped out of her hug and hung her head. Seeing this she let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry Rose, but those are the rules. Now if that is all I have a class coming in any moment now." Indeed, I could hear the chattering of students outside the door.

"Thank you." Rose said and then walked away as I followed her. She was quiet all the way through dinner and after we had retired back to the common room and finished our homework for the day she sat in a pensive mood. As she was doing that I was writing a letter to my mom about our first day and how it had gone. Just as I had finished Hedwig fluttered down and landed on my shoulder startling me.

"Blimey, that took years off my life there, Hedwig. Give a bloke some warning next time, will ya?"

"Prek." She screeched at me in what I swear was a laughing manner before holding out her leg as though gesturing for the letter.

"Wait really? Rose, your bird is bloody smart." She smiled and reached over to gently stroke her chest feathers.

"I know she is." Hedwig preened and playfully nibbled at her fingers.

"Would it be okay to send my mum a letter with her?"

"If she's up for it then sure." Hedwig bobbed her head up and down settling the matter so I rolled it up and attached it to her leg. "Have a safe trip girl." Hedwig screeched at us once more and then took flight, soaring out an open window and into the night.

"Scary smart." I muttered to myself before I turned back to Rose. "So how do you think your first day of school went?"

She seemed to shake off whatever mood she was in as she answered me. "I think it was brilliant. Professor Flitwick is my favorite so far."

I smiled at her. "He's mine as well. My least favorite class was with Quirrell just because the garlic scent gave me a headache and his stuttering didn't help."

"I know…" We spent the rest of the time before bed just talking about how the first day went and wondering how next would be and by the time Rose went off to bed she seemed happy. 'Which was good enough for me,' I thought as I slipped beneath the covers after setting an alarm.

The next morning I woke to my wand buzzing against my skin and a quick tap made it stop. Hopping out of bed I winched again at the coldness of the floors. 'Got to learn a heating charm for that.' Getting dressed and ready didn't take too long and I waited in the common room for Rose to come down.

As soon as she came down and was ready to go we made our way downstairs to the great hall and had breakfast. Hedwig hadn't returned yet so I was forced to wait for the book I wanted for the moment. After that we had another headache inducing lesson with Professor Quirrell but after that we had our first Herbology lesson out in the greenhouse.

As we made our way over to the greenhouses Professor Sprout, a plump cheerful woman, was waiting for us and after rollcall addressed us. "Good morning class. As you can see behind me there are 7 different greenhouses that become progressively more dangerous. On my far right is the least dangerous and everything past the third will be locked for you safety so please do not try to get in them." She smiled at us as some of us shifted in place at the mention of danger.

"If you follow me to the first greenhouse we will be studying the properties of aconite." 'Huh, Snape's question wasn't meant to be that difficult I guess.' The rest of the lesson continued without hassle although the greenhouse did smell a little weird which I suppose came from the dragon dung they used as fertilizer.

Following that we had lunch which we stayed for a bit too long and we had to practically run to make it to the History of Magic class where Rose made a valiant effort to stay awake, but ultimately succumbed to the sweet embrace of sleep along with most of the class. I had to shake her awake once more after the class had ended.

After that we headed off to our first Transfiguration class where there was an orange tabby cat sitting on the desk. We sat down and pulled out our books as we waited for the class to begin. The bell rang as the last stragglers ran in and the cat jumped off the desk to transform into McGonagall in midair. I heard the gasps of surprise, mine included, as she did so. 'It's too bad that a metamorphmagus can't become an animagus but I would take the former over the latter any day.'

"Welcome students to your first day of Transfiguration. A word of warning before we begin. This type of magic can be extremely dangerous because it is not permanent. As such, if I catch anyone giving transformed food or drink to another person you will be dismissed from my class without the option to rejoin." She looked over the crowd of children as though willing to impart how serious this was.

"Can anyone tell me why it would be dangerous to eat a transformed piece of food? Yes, miss Granger."

"Because it would revert to whatever form it was before when it was in you." She nodded sharply.

"Exactly. Say you eat a piece of meat that has been transformed from a block of wood. Sometime after you have consumed it the block of wood will revert and you will have to be immediately rushed to the hospital if you don't die immediately to have the foreign object painfully removed from your body." There was silence after she finished her speech as we each considered what she said.

Finally she spoke up again. "That is my warning but do not be afraid of transfiguration as it can accomplish amazing things." She waved her wand at her desk transforming it to a pig and then back again to a desk to the merriment of the class. "Now. I will pass out these matches and your job will be to change them into a silver needle." She went around the class placing a match before everyone and after she was done she stood at the front of the room. "The wand motion and word are like so. Now off you go."

There was a flurry of yelling as each of the students started to try to change the match. I looked down at my match and I felt my magic flow as I said the words and my match changed to a silver needle. I blinked and then looked at my wand. That was honestly the easiest thing I've ever cast before. 'Perhaps it's due to my nature?' Glancing over I saw that Rose had gotten a silvery sheen down but it wasn't quite a needle yet, no, wait, now it was.

"Excellent work miss Potter and mister Tonks. You seem to take after your father miss Potter if your talent in transfiguration seems to be any indication and mister Tonks I would expect nothing less due to your nature. 5 points to Gryffindor and if you manage to transform the needle back into a match by the end of class you will be exempt from the homework for today's lesson."

'Well that answers my question.' I thought as I saw Rose seem to glow at taking after her father. 'Time to be exempt from homework for today then.' Changing the needle back into a match proved to be just as easy as it was the other way around and Rose accomplished it a few minutes behind me.

"Well done you two. You are exempt from this homework assignment. For the rest of the class you can practice the spell or start reading ahead but don't try any of the spells you find." We nodded and Rose started practicing the spell while I started to read ahead a bit. By the time the class was over only Hermione had changed the match to a silver color while the rest of the class seemed to be struggling with it. For some reason I saw a spark of jealousy within her eyes as the class ended and I could only equate that to us getting the spell before her which was a bit silly in my mind but different things for different people I suppose.

As dinner was wrapping up I saw the white feathered beauty that was Hedwig soar in and land in front of me. "Oh, who's a beautiful owl," Rose cooed at her as she feed her a bit of chicken. I took the small parcel from her leg as this was going on and enlarged it with my wand before thanking her by gently rubbing her chest feathers.

I would read the letter later in a more private place as well as give the book to Rose later. The rest of dinner seemed to drag on and on the way back to the dorms I pulled Rose into an unused classroom. The look she sent me was questioning and I drew out the book entitled, _A Beginners Guide to Occlumency_ then handed it to her.

She looked between the book and me for a moment. "What's this about?"

"This," I tapped the cover of the book. "Is a book about the art of protecting one's mind from foreign intrusions."

"Wait. People can read my mind? Why haven't you told me this before?"

"Yes they can and you honestly didn't expect to learn everything about the Wizarding world in a month did you?" She looked sheepish at that so I continued. "I felt a mental probe from one of the teachers and I thought you should practice this so that you can at least feel when someone tries to intrude in your mind."

"Oh, a teacher did that?" I nodded and she looked back down at the book. "How good are you at this?"

I grimaced slightly. "Honestly not very good at all. I'm only really at the point where I can feel when someone is trying to get into my head and my best defense right now is to just break eye contact with everyone. I recommend reading that book and practicing the exercises in them at night before you go to bed."

She looked down at the book for a long moment before nodding and tucking it away. "Alright." Giving her a smile I opened the door back up and we spent the rest of the night talking in the common area before bed time. As I laid in bed getting ready to go to sleep I opened up my mom's letter and read it. There wasn't much to say about it other than the fact that both of them were surprised about my sorting but they were fine with it. With that done I set the letter aside and went to bed for the night.

Wednesday went much the same, although staying up for Astronomy was a drag, but on Thursday when we were supposed to fly for the first time our group of first years huddled at the entrance to the castle watching the rain pour down and lightning flash across the sky. Our flying instructor Madam Hooch let out a sigh at the sight and turned to face us. "I'm sorry children but our first flying lesson will be canceled today due to the weather. Please consider this time your own and I will see you next week." I raised an eyebrow at that.

'Wouldn't it make more sense to teach us proper technique or something inside instead of just letting us run free?' Looking to my side I could see that Rose was looking quite disappointed at the missed opportunity to fly, the adrenaline junkie. I nudged her gently in the side. "What do you want to do now?"

She looked around the milling crowd of people who were breaking off in small groups and shrugged. "Don't know, explore the castle maybe?" Not having anything else to do I agreed and we set off. I'm not quite sure how it happened but as we went up and up the stairs we somehow managed to end up in the dungeons.

"Brilliant," I muttered as we looked around. "How does that even work? We only went upwards."

"Magic." Rose said blithely and I let out a snort at her cheekiness. Spotting what looked like a passage way I motioned towards it.

"Let's go that way." As we walked along the passageway it turned more and more natural looking as the carved stones became unhewn rock. I took a deep breath and my nose wrinkled at the smell of decaying fish and I could hear the sounds of lapping water further onwards. "I think we might be going under the lake soon and I'm not even sure if we're in the castle proper anymore. Do you want to keep going or turn back?"

"We've come this far. Might as well keep on going." It was getting hard to see so I lifted my wand and cast a _lumos_ with Rose following my example. After a good ten more minutes of walking we came to a large chamber that contained a large pool of water and the remains of many fish. As we were looking around the water started to ripple and tentacles burst from the murky depths before the large body of what could only be the giant squid emerged.

I heard a gasp from Rose but I wasn't afraid of the giant squid. Dora had said he was friendly and Hogwarts, A History said that in the entirety of its history the squid had never attacked a student. "Hey Steve." I called out as I gave it wave. Several of its tentacles waved back as I heard Rose almost hiss.

"Steve. Its name is Steve?"

"Of course. What else would he be called?" I looked at Steve for a moment. "Maybe Tim but I think Steve fits better." Steve seemed to nod at me and I looked around the cavern. "So this is your home then?" He nodded again.

"It's nice, suits you well. Sorry for barging in though." He seemed to dismiss it as inconsequential. A quick _tempus_ told me it was almost time for dinner. "Well once more sorry for dropping in like this but we really do need to be going. Have a lovely rest of your day." Several more of its tentacles waved at us as we retraced our steps away from the giant squid although Rose had a death grip on my left arm the entire time.

As soon as we were far enough away Rose whispered to me. "Let's not go back here."

"Why not? Steve's a great guy, er, squid."

She sent a glare my way. "I just don't want to okay." I made a placating gesture.

"Fine. It's a little smelly anyway." That seemed to mollify her and we made it back in time for dinner. During dinner Hedwig swooped down and stuck out her leg to Rose.

"A letter to me? Who would write to me?" I kept my face neutral as I eyed the letter wondering how it got around the wards that seemed to be keeping all other letters away from her. Rose picked it up without a care and read it. "Oh, it's Hagrid. He's inviting me to tea tomorrow at 3:30. Do you want to come as well?"

"Sure." She sent a blinding smile my way before scribbling something down on a piece of parchment which she then attached to Hedwig.

"Can you take this to Hagrid for me girl?" Hedwig nuzzled against her hand for a moment before she took flight over to the teacher's table. I saw Hagrid take the note off her and then give a big thumbs up to Rose. With that nothing else exciting happened for the rest of the day and I went to bed later.

Double potions the next day wasn't terrible but Snape seemed to be hovering near us just waiting to take any points off or berate our work. Luckily we didn't make any mistakes worthy of his ire which seemed to irk him terribly. After a quick lunch and a delightful charms class we made our way down towards the Forbidden Forest where Hagrid's hut sat near the edge woods. Rose knocked on the large door and I could hear barking on the other side.

"Back, Fang, back." Hagrid's loud voice boomed out and as the door opened a black blur shot out, impacting my chest, and sending me sprawling on the ground. The dog's hot, stinky breath was of secondary concern to the fact that he seemed to be trying to lick my face off. "Hey now." I felt the dog's weight lifted off my chest. "Sorry, bout that. Fang just gets a little excited to meet new people."

Rose was giggling off to the side as I tried to wipe the excessive amount of drool off my face and failing miserably. "No problem, but could I have something to wipe my face?"

"Sure. Come right on in and I'll get ye something." Hagrid kept a firm hold on Fang's collar as he guided us in and I felt like a child sitting at the adults table as I sat down. "Here you go." He handed me a slightly damp towel and I used it to get the remaining slobber off my face as I felt Fang's setting his head down in my lap.

There was a whistle of a tea pot and I heard him start bustling around as he set everything up while I cleaned my face. Once I was satisfied that everything was slobber free I set the towel to the side and picked up the waiting tea cup in front of me. Thankfully it was not Hagrid sized because his cup looked more like a tankard than a cup and I didn't fancy drinking that much tea in one sitting.

We talked about how school was going and such before Rose seemed to spot something that sparked her curiosity. "Hagrid, why do you have a clipping of a Gringotts break-in?" She looked at the article a bit closer. "Actually, wasn't that the same vault we visited when we went to Gringotts?"

"Never you mind that. That's Hogwarts business right there."

His warning didn't seem to faze Rose at all now that her curiosity was peaked. "But what could be so important that someone would try to steal from Gringotts? I thought it was the safest place in the world?"

"Look, just leave it alright? Whoever it was won't bother us here because Hogwarts is the safest place in the world." I could see the pieces clicking together in Rose's mind and she gave Hagrid a smile but didn't say anything more about it for the rest of the evening.

As soon as we left and were a bit of a distance away she did turn to me though. "I think whatever was in that vault they brought here. What do you think it is?"

I hummed in thought. "I don't know what it is but it's probably in the third floor corridor." I paused for a moment. 'Did I ever mention that in my letter about dying a horrible death if we went to the third corridor? I don't think I did. How curious and worrying.' Shrugging it off as unimportant for now I continued. "Kind of defeats the purpose of hiding it away but I suppose it might deter the thief if they got in." We continued to walk towards the castle as it began to grow dark.

"Enough of that though. Tomorrow you'll be going to Gringotts." Her face lit up and we spent the rest of the evening talking about how excited she was about that and the fact that she was growing more than a little worried as well. I tried my best to dispel her worries and after breakfast the following day I saw her and Professor McGonagall off.

With nothing else to do and feeling lonely not a minute after she had left I went to go find my sister. It took me an hour to find her in an out of the way unused classroom sweating as four manikins flung what looked like stinging hexes at her as she ducked and dodged. Seeing an opportunity for revenge I quietly strode into the room and at the critical moment screamed, "Dora!"

She let out a yelp as she missed her next step and bolt after bolt hit her causing her to let out even more yelps until she yelled, "Stand down." The four manikins instantly stopped and moved to attention as she whirled around to face me a glare on her face. "What was that for?"

"For teaching Rose that forbidden look. With her eye color it should be labeled as a sin. Nothing should be that adorable." I said the last part in a grumble and she let out a laugh as she conjured a cup before filling it with water and drinking it. "So was this for training to be an Auror?"

She finished drinking before nodding. "Yeah. This was training to work on my reflexes before someone disrupted it."

"Eh, think of it as in the field training because there might be something that distracts you out there but you have to keep your mind in the game. If anything you should be thanking me for finding a flaw you need to work on."

She looked thoughtful for a moment before conceding the point to me. "I get the first part but you won't hear a thank you from me for the second. Stinging hexes hurt you know." She looked around the room for a moment. "Where's Rose? I promised to show you guys the kitchen today and I haven't seen you guys apart yet."

I sighed as I found a chair and sat down in it. "She's at Gringotts because apparently she never received her quarterly financial statement ever and she's also checking to see if there were portraits of her parents made before they… you know. She wanted me to go with but McGonagall denied that, something about it being against the rules."

Dora let out a sigh as well as she found a chair to sit in and her face showed pity for Rose. "Poor girl. Hope she finds what she's looking for." There was a bit of a stretch of silence as we each had our own thoughts about her situation. "How's your first week been going besides that?" Taking the subject change gratefully I launched into how my week had gone and then caught up on her week as well. It was nice just catching back up with my sister but in the end she shooed me away and went back to training.

As I was leaving though I felt a stinging sensation on my butt and as the door slammed shut I could hear her laughing. Rubbing the sore spot and muttering darkly I went to the main hall and settled down with a book to pass the time. When Rose came back she would have to pass by the hall and hopefully she would see me.

A couple of hours went by and there was still no sign of Rose so I had lunch as I waited. It took a few more hours before Rose walked in and saw me. Observing her carefully I saw that she had been crying recently but she was practically glowing with happiness now and one hand was clutching some kind of necklace. She raced over to me so quickly I swear she teleported and dragged me out of the hall.

I was dragged along until she pulled me into an unused classroom and shut the door before turning to me with a huge smile. "Tonks, I want you to meet my parents." She opened her hand revealing a golden heart on a chain. A tap of her wand later and it floated away from her and enlarged to the size of a large book. Then a hidden seam formed as the heart opened revealing two people standing next to each other. There was a man with messy black hair and glasses holding hands with a woman with piercing green eyes and red hair.

"Hello there." Lily said kindly. "We've heard from Rose that you're her first friend?"

"Um, yes. My name is Eros Tonks and I do have the pleasure of being her friend." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rose smiling widely at that and Lily nodded slightly.

"Tonks, you wouldn't happen to be related to Andromeda Tonks, Sirius' cousin would you?" James asked and I grimaced slightly at Sirius' name. Mother threw a fit whenever anyone mentioned that name and they seemed to catch it.

"Yes that would be my mum. I also have an older sister named Nymphadora Tonks."

"I remember her. She was a cute little thing running around with her hair flickering to any old color. Sirius' called her his little Nym." He frowned at me. "Why do you keep grimacing when I mention Sirius? Do you not like him or something?"

'Crap.' I looked back and forth between the portrait and Rose. "Look, I don't want to spoil our first meeting so could we drop this for now?" James frowned at me and looked back and forth between Rosa and I.

"Wait does Sirius not approve of you being near Rose? Are you Dark, because if you are you can –" Rose's voice rose above his and the question silenced him.

"Who's Sirius?" Both James and Lily turned to her looks of disbelief apparent on their faces.

"How do you not know Sirius? Who raised you?" James asked.

She shrunk a little and took half a step back as though she had done something wrong. "The Dursleys."

"You mean my bitch of a sister took care of you? How? The last time I saw her she was screaming that I was better off dead because Death Eaters killed our parents and how it was my fault that they got dragged into the Magical World. Where was Sirius, Pettigrew or even Remus?" Rose just looked lost and almost as one they turned to me.

'So much for a happy family reunion.' I sigh and scratched my cheek. "I don't know anything about Remus but I know that Pettigrew died after Sirius betrayed you to Voldemort." A flash of white hot rage flashed across Rose's face with such intensity that I took half a step back while both James and Lily looked lost and confused.

"No, no he wouldn't do that. Sirius was my brother in all but blood. You didn't say he died so where is he now?"

"Azkaban for the last 10 years. May I ask when you were made?"

"Right before we went into hiding." Lily said distractedly and turned to James to start whispering in his ear. That went on for a few minutes before James nodded and turned to Rose.

"Are we correct in assuming that you didn't know anything about the Magical world before you came to Hogwarts?" Rose nodded dejectedly and James turned to me. "Then can I ask you to stand by her side?"

"I already am and I always will." I said formally to the, although deceased, head of house, James as he asked for my loyalty to Rose.

"Then I name you Friend of the House of Potter." There was no flash of light to signal my vow, no pulse of magic to bind me, it was simply a matter of formality practiced by the Noble families. Anyone who had sworn such an oath and broke it would be branded an Oathbreaker and their word disregarded by all who knew. He turned back to Rose. "You can trust Tonks in all matters. These revelations have shaken us though and while we love you dearly we would like a moment to come to terms with them."

"You're leaving already?"

Lily smiled sadly at her. "Not leaving. We're always with you and you need only pull us out again to see us. We love you sweetheart."

Rose sniffed and I could see the first hint of tears forming in her eyes. "I love you to mum and dad." They both gave her a smile before the locket closed and shrunk down into a small golden heart which settled around her neck once more. I'm kind of clueless on what to when people cry, but something inside me demanded action so I stepped forward and wrapped Rose into a hug.

I felt her stiffen for a moment before she returned the hug with what seemed like all her strength. "Thank you for letting me hear that my parents loved me." I heard her whisper in my ear and I just hugged her tighter. Somehow this just felt right.

Omake: Steve the giant squid

As numerous tentacles burst from the water I turned to Rose. "Shit. I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going. Glad I'm not a girl."

There was an adorably innocent expression on her face. "Why would that matter and can't you turn into a girl?"

"…Shit, run!"


End file.
